Donna KirshbaumIsaac SaposnikTwo future Reconstructionist rabbis are profiled in the Forward among 11 up-and-coming Jewish leaders to watch. Both will graduate this June from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.  read more »

Read more to learn about them.

From constructing new buildings out of recycled materials, to installing a compact-fluorescent ner tamid; from joining together in song, to discovering what musar can teach us about solving global climate change, JRF congregations are engaged in protecting their natural environment, reducing their carbon footprint, and ensuring a inheritance for those who come after them.

In partnership with COEJL and JCPA, our hope is to motivate and educate our congregations in sustainable practices, with the goal of reaching 100 percent participation in the years ahead. Building upon the resolution on the environment passed by JRF in 1990, our movement continues to labor towards facilitating a globally sustainable approach to living in faith community.

During this second week of Omer teaching, we are highlighting these many environmental sustainability initiatives taking place ...

Below, as an attachment, you will find a PDF resource packet and the recording from our environmental sustainability - PEARL tele-conference call, featuring:

• A teaching by Rabbi Shawn Zevit of JRF
• Links to environmental material on the JRF website
• Notes from the Sustainable Synagogues Conference Call, held on June 6, 2007
• A derash by Cantor Eric Schulmiller, from the Reconstructionist Synagogue of the North Shore
• News clippings about the new building constructed by the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, IL - the greenest synagogue in America
• The "Green Year Initiative" instituted by Congregation Shir Hadash in Milwaukee, WI
• Urban Environmental Sustainability programming
  created by Kol Tzedek in Philadelphia, PA.

As you read through the teaching, feel free to add comments on this page about your own experiences or use the listserve or web page to ask questions.

April 29, 2008 - 2:18pm — Rabbi Shawn Zevit Questions for Sustainability
On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 12:07 PM, Rabbi Shawn Zevit wrote:

Q. 1) If you imagine yourself at the end of this year, what action(s) do you most want to change in your personal lifestyle to include a
sustainability consciousness? What about as a faith community?

Q. 2) What ideas included in the Sustainability packet inspire or challenge your current personal and communal way of life and your impact on the local and larger eco-systems of which you are a part?

For additional resources on the Omer Learning Initiative or Greening Synagogues, go to our environment page at http://www.jrf.org/climate

During our first week of Omer teaching, we are highlighting the efforts and energy within our congregations engaged in congregation-based community organizing (CBCO). As you read through it feel free to add comments on this page about your own experiences in community organizing or use the listserve or web page to ask questions.

Below as an attachment, you will find a PDF resource packet and the recording from our Community Organizing and Congregational Advocacy - PEARL tele-conference call, featuring:

• Rabbi Shawn Zevit, Director of Outreach and Tikkun Olam for JRF
• Shuli Passow, CBCO consultant for the Jewish Funds for Justice
• Rabbi Steve Carr Reuben, Kehillat Israel, CA
• Kathy Kaufman and Irene Zipper, Chapel Hill Kehillah, NC
• John Goldstein and David Weingrod, Shir Hadash, WI

For more information, please contact Rabbi Shawn Zevit at JRF, 215-885-5601 x 24.  read more »

From Seedtime to Harvest:
From the values and spirit of tikkun to community building and sustained action  read more »

Beginning on the eve of the second day of Pesach, we are instructed by our tradition to count the days of the “Omer” until the fiftieth day, which is when the first barley crop would be harvested. It is also the Jewish holiday of Shavuot when, according to our tradition, the Jewish People received the Torah at Mt. Sinai. The counting of the Omer is a bridge between Pesach and Shavuot – between a moment of liberation and a moment of self-definition and direction at the beginning of our evolution as a religious civilization. It is an opportunity to deepen our study and close the gap between ideas and action for the tikkun (rebalancing, repair) of the challenges we face in our world.

Boaz Grabs the BreadI've written an article on my blog about my experience searching for chametz (leaven -- the forbidden stuff on Passover). Here is an excerpt:
This year, we only recovered three pieces of the bread of the ten pieces we put out. Where are the other seven? Boaz, our cocker spaniel, is the likely culprit. We have eyewitness evidence of him downing four of the pieces. As for the other three...?

Our cocker spaniel Boaz likely claimed the other seven. You can read (or listen) to whole piece at everydayandeverynight.com.

Happy Passover.

Brant RosenKol hakavod to Rabbi Brant Rosen, rabbi of the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, IL, for being recognized in Newsweek magazine as one of the Top Pulpit Rabbis in America.

With Rosen's leadership, JRC is gaining notoriety as "America's greenest shul" for meeting the highest standards in green building practices in its recent renovation.

Newsweek's criteria were rabbis' inspirational abilities; leadership within the congregation, denomination and the community; and skills in meeting the spiritual and personal needs of congregants.

Date: Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Time: 12:00 - 1:30 pm, Eastern Daylight Time

Click here to register for this and other PEARL: Providing Education And Resources for Leadership tele-conference sessions.

For the last two years JRF has partnered with the Jewish Funds for Justice and some of JRF's own leading rabbis and lay leaders in the field of congregation-based community organizing to help promote and develop spiritually activist communities.  read more »

When: 5 pm on Wednesday, August 13 through Noon on Sunday, August 17
Where: Camp JRF, South Sterling, PA

Experience as a family the joy, fun and community of Reconstructionist camping this summer at Camp JRF Family Camp! There's something for everyone: Activities for adults, teens, children and families!  read more »

Download the Family Camp brochure and register now!

Read it online!  read more »

The Winter 2008 issue of JRF's magazine, Reconstructionism Today (RT) - "a voice for creative Jewish living" - was mailed to members of JRF congregations. Read more to see what's inside.

The Jewish Reconstructionist Federation is among eight national Jewish agencies issuing an open letter this week to the United Methodist Church (UMC). The document, entitled "Thoughts on the Task of Peace Making in the Middle East: A Message to Our Methodist Friends,” offers talking points for the Jewish community and can be used as a leave-behind document for Methodists.  read more »

The full document is attached to this announcment and can be copied and disseminated.

When: August 17-21, 2009
Where: Camp JRF in South Sterling, PA.
Post-B’nai Mitzvah teens and their parents are invited to share a week working together to make a difference. Space is limited! Enrollment is currently open for a group of 15 adult-teen teams. Teens must be post b’nai mitzvah age (13 or older) and be accompanied by at least one parent.  read more »

Get more information and download the registration form!

Rabbi Elizabeth BoltonElizabeth Bolton, rabbi of Reconstructionist Congregation Beit Tikvah in Baltimore, MD, was among clergy interviewed for an article that appeared in this week's Baltimore Sun.

Same-sex marriage remains outlawed in Maryland. So Bolton and a small but growing number of clergy of every faith and denomination - in protest to what they perceive as an unjust law - have decided to officiate at religious marriage ceremonies but are declining to sign any civil licenses until marriage has been granted as a legal right for all couples.

Temple Beth Hatfiloh in Olympia is scheduled to finish its remodeling project this month. The 7,000-square-foot addition on the left houses offices, meeting space and classrooms to better serve members of the congregation. (Steven M. Herppich/The Olympian)by Lisa Pemberton

This article originally appeared in The Olympian and is reprinted with permission.

Members of Temple Beth Hatfiloh in Olympia have envisioned a new synagogue for about 15 years.

"At one time, the (new building) committee was called TBH 2000," said Beth Halpern of Olympia. "When we first started, it seemed realistic."  read more »

The dream soon will come to fruition as workers put the final touches on the 18,000-square-foot temple at Eighth Avenue and Washington Street, formerly the home of a Christian Science church.

Rabbi Kevin Hale laying out the Megillat Esther scroll

An Unusual Megillah
By Marissa Brostoff

This article originally appeared in The Forward and is reprinted with permission.

The Scroll of Esther is getting a makeover from several kids in Pennsylvania, a Reconstructionist scribe and a computer graphics program.  read more »

Congregation Or Hadash, a small Reconstructionist synagogue located in the Philadelphia suburb of Fort Washington, has commissioned a sofer to create a megillah that incorporates drawings by students in its religious school.

Please join us at "Healthy Generations: Mobilizing our Community to Prevent Jewish Genetic Diseases" on March 31, 2008, 8:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. at the Hilton Philadelphia City Avenue. The Jewish Reconstructionist Federation is proud to be a collaborating organization of this Symposium.