Academic Center

RRC hosts three academic centers: Hiddur: The Center for Aging and Judaism, Kolot: The Center for Jewish Women’s and Gender Studies, and the Center for Jewish Ethics The academic centers are keeping RRC on the cutting edge of issues that deeply concern the Jewish community, including aging, gender and ethics.

Audio Resources

Rabbi Deborah Waxman, ’99, RRC’s vice president for governance, reflects on Reconstructionist creativity in approaching ritual and on the origins of both the holiday of Yom Hashoah and the Reconstructionist movement. She offered this teaching on the occasion of Yom Hashoah 5767 (April 15, 2007).

Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer, ’82, the director of the Multifaith Studies and Initiatives Program and the associate professor of Religious Studies, explores the question: “Why do we pray?” Her d’var Torah for parsha Tatzria-Metzora was inspired by Mitchell Silver’s book, The Plausible God: Secular Reflections on Liberal Jewish Theology.

For Pesakh 5767 (2007), Rabbi Dan Ehrenkrantz, the president of RRC, offered a half-hour teaching on the evolution of key symbols in the seder from the Rabbinic era to contemporary times. Hear the teaching and see text sources...

Hear Kolot Director Lori Lefkovitz, Ph.D., give a talk on "Restoring Women to the Hanukkah Story."

In October 2006, RRC invited Noah Feldman, Esq., noted legal scholar and author, to serve as scholar in residence at the inaugural President's Council weekend. Listen to Feldman's lectures...

The scholar in residence for the 2007 President's Council weekend was Dr. Sherwin B. Nuland, author, lecturer and professor of surgery at Yale School of Medicine. Listen to Nuland's lectures...

Sen. Daniel Levin, D-Mich., the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, addressed RRC supporters at a special celebration of 40 years of leadership at RRC. Listen to an edited version of Levin's remarks.

Jewish Organizational Resources

David A. Teutsch, Ph.D., founder and director of RRC’s Center for Jewish Ethics, recently headed a major long-range planning process for STAR (Synagogues: Transformation and Renewal). Three publications are now available to help congregations do strategic planning and work with consultants. Two students, Isabel de Koninck and Sandra Rubenstein, assisted Teutsch in writing and compiling some of these resources.

Download the reports in PDF format:
Acting Strategically: A Manual for Synagogue Planning
Consulting in American Synagogues: A Report on the State of the Field
Annotated Resource List of Synagogue Consultants

HIDDUR: The Center for Judaism and Aging collaborated with the Union of Reform Judaism Sacred Aging Project to explore the "age wave" and its impact on synagogues. The resulting report is called “Gearing Up for the Age Wave: A Guide for Synagogues.” Read more about the process and see the report.

Whizin Prize Essays

Each year, The Center for Jewish Ethics at RRC sponsors an essay contest open to all students from rabbinical training institutions around the world, and awards the winning essayist with the Whizin Prize. Read an archive of winning entries.