Rabbi's Blog

Dear Haverim,

Please join us this Friday evening for the first Shabbat of 2024, when we’ll look back and ahead at the many ways in which Reconstructionist Judaism has shaped our Jewish lives and American Judaism as a whole. 

In 1934, Reconstructionism’s founder Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan wrote his magnum opus “Judaism As A Civilization,” which revolutionized the way that Jews from all denominations began to rethink what a modern, rational, and relevant Judaism could be.  Kaplan was ordained as both an Orthodox and Conservative rabbi and was the co-creator of the Jewish Community Center movement.  He was offered, but declined, the Presidency of the Reform Seminary (JIR), preferring to attract to his new and innovative synagogue in Manhattan, the Society for the Advancement of Judaism, Jews who ranged from Modern Orthodox to secular.

Kaplan was a Zionist who valued the Diaspora as well as the State of Israel as co-equal expressions of Judaism, and a feminist, whose daughter Judith, became the first Bat Mitzvah in American Jewish history in 1922.

Through Reconstructionism, Kaplan created a non-supernaturalistic and humanistic form of Judaism that attracted those who could no longer literally believe in the traditional stories of the Torah nor a God that suspends the laws of nature and is in control of reality.

Kaplan was a first-rate intellectual, who preferred being called a “religious anthropologist,” rather than a theologian.  All of us, whether fully aware of it or not, have found greater meaning and relevance in Judaism because of Dr. Kaplan.

For both those who know a little or a lot about Kaplan and Reconstructionism, this Friday evening will be an opportunity to learn much more and to have your questions answered.  (Click here to RSVP.)

Please also RSVP now for Friday, January 12, at 7:00 p.m. when Shabbat services will include beautiful music and a most relevant topic. As we all know, the President of the University of Pennsylvania had to resign after failing to deal appropriately with anti-Semitism on Penn’s campus.  Her cowardly testimony before Congress was the final step in her removal, after sounding oblivious to the murderous reality of Hamas on October 7 and its repercussions on college campuses.

Our guests at services on January 12 will be the “Penn Shabbatones,” a Jewish a cappella group that performs Jewish and American songs around the country.  One of the performers and managers of the group is Beaue Bernstein, who grew up at University Synagogue and whose parents, Gideon Bernstein and Jeanne Pepper, have been long-time members of our congregation. 

In addition to the Penn Shabbatones singing at services, they will also speak about anti-Semitism on campus and what they and other students, faculty and administrators are now doing to combat it.  We’ll learn about their fears as well as their resolve to stand up for Jews and Judaism at this difficult time. 

So, please be with us on January 12 to give them your support, pride, and encouragement.  (Click here to RSVP.)

Also, if you attended the University of Pennsylvania (as I did, and as University Synagogue’s president, Eric Blum, as well as several other members did), please email me at rabbi@universitysynagogue.org by Wednesday, January 10, because Penn alumni will get a special group part in services – another way of our showing solidarity with our Penn guests.

The next two weeks at University Synagogue will be filled with learning, entertainment, and pride.  Please be with us.

All the best in the New Year/Shana Tova,

Rabbi Arnie Rachlis