Education
This list offers Reconstructionist approaches to Jewish ideas and practices. Note: These were developed in the years before the restructuring of the Reconstructionist movement in June 2012.
Topics: Education, Teaching Reconstructionism, Jewish Practice, Jewish Thought, Reconstructionist Judaism
Type: FAQ
This two-page overview of Reconstructionist Judaism focuses on the three pillars of Judaism: Torah, prayer and ritual, and mitzvot (commandments).
Topics: Education, Teaching Reconstructionism
Type: FAQ
This is a hands-on, team activity for the week before Sukkot that allows students to build sukkot according to instructions given in the Mishnah.
Type: Lesson Plan
Developed for use in the Sh'lom Kitah Program of the Board of Jewish Education of Greater Washington in 2002-03, this manual provides practical suggestions and tools for lesson planning and classroom management. It includes excellent resources for bringing a "multiple intelligences " awareness into classrooms.
Type: Teacher Training
This Rosh Hashanah program is appropriate for primary and secondary school students. It uses multiple learning stations, which creates a diversity of activities and allows for many students to participate at once. Themes such as tashlich and creation are included.
Type: Lesson Plan
This audio program offers an overview of the structure, development and religious meanings of the haggadah and the Passover seder with Rabbis Joy Levitt and Richard Hirsh. It includes a special behind-the-scenes look at the Reconstructionist haggadah, A Night of Questions, and its accompanying music CD. This is an episode of Heart, Mind and Spirit.
Type: Audio Interview
Blessings for Life's Journey
Each week, Rabbi Sheryl Lewart, z”l, would send out blessings to congregants and friends, offering a modern twist on each week’s Torah portion. Blessings for Life's Journey is a posthumously published collection of her writings.
Type: Book
Resources for Teaching Rabbinic Texts to Middle Schoolers
In February 2003, Jeremy Schwartz sent a message to edtalk, the listserv for Reconstructionist educators, requesting materials for teaching Rabbinic texts to 6th and 7th graders. Over the next few weeks, listserv members contributed these suggestions.
Topics: Education
Type: Bibliography
SiddurQuest
In 2004, Reconstructionist educators in the Chesapeake region met to explore the "SiddurQuest" approach to liturgical text [based on Rabbi Shai Gluskin's "TorahQuest" program]. This is the schedule of the educators' meeting.
Topics: Education
Type: Lesson Plan