Last year, amid tension in the movement over the anti-Israel stances of many rabbinical students and graduates, Rabbi Deborah Waxman announced her retirement as president and CEO of Reconstructing Judaism.
Though she made her announcement in the spring of 2025, Waxman will not actually step down until the upcoming summer. That’s why, on May 20, the Reconstructionist movement’s denominational body, which is based in Wyncote, released the news of her replacement: Rabbi Elliott Tepperman, the longtime spiritual leader of Bnai Keshet in Montclair, New Jersey.
The national search for Waxman’s replacement attracted more than 200 candidates, according to Mark Pinsky, the chair of the search committee. Tepperman was selected by the movement’s board of governors due to his “distinguished record of congregational leadership, community building, and deep engagement with Reconstructionist values and practice,” per a news release.
“We are thrilled to welcome Rabbi Tepperman as the next President and CEO of Reconstructing Judaism,” said Ed Baum, the chair of the board of governors, in the release. “His vision, his warmth, and his lifelong commitment to the Reconstructionist movement make him exactly the right leader for this moment. We are confident that under his leadership, our movement will continue to grow, deepen, and inspire.”
Rabbi Tepperman graduated from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 2002 and has spent the last 24 years serving Bnai Keshet. He has also served as president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association and of the Montclair Interfaith Clergy Association.
His leadership of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association showed the committee that he could guide a national organization in addition to his congregation.
“He’s already operated on a national level within our movement,” Pinsky said.
The rabbi, for his part, said he’s excited to work with the denomination as a whole.
“I am humbled and energized by this opportunity,” he said. “Reconstructing Judaism has always been a home for serious, courageous Jewish thinking and living. I look forward to listening deeply to our congregations, our students, our clergy, and our broader community — and to working together to build the bold, joyful, and justice-centered Jewish future that our tradition calls us toward. I have dedicated my adult life to serving this movement that has so deeply shaped me as a Jew and as a rabbi. It is an honor to follow in the footsteps of my strong predecessors, and it will be a privilege to work with extraordinary communities of our movement and exceptional staff, faculty, students, and leaders at Reconstructing Judaism.”
Waxman has led the organization since 2014. She is widely credited with getting its financial house in order and expanding field experience as part of the rabbinical curriculum, according to a 2025 Jewish Telegraphic Agency story on her retirement. She also opened the RRC to become the first rabbinical school to accept students with non-Jewish partners.
But in recent years, anti-Israel sentiment at the school has taken center stage … literally. Two years ago, out of the 11 new rabbis in the RRC’s graduating class, at least half identified as anti-Zionist or participated in anti-Israel protests and actions, according to Talia Werber and Steven Goldstein, two former students in the class.
Werber and Goldstein told Philadelphia Jewish Exponent that same year that they consistently faced backlash for trying to start a pro-Israel organization at the school. A May 2024 JTA story on anti-Israel sentiment at RRC also mentioned that seminary graduates made up at least 25 of 45 members of the rabbinical council for Jewish Voice for Peace, the largest Jewish anti-Zionist organization.
Then, in July 2025, the movement’s largest synagogue — Kehillat Israel in Pacific Palisades, California — separated from Reconstructing Judaism due to what its own leaders perceived as the failure of the movement’s leaders to confront anti-Israel sentiment, according to a July 2025 JTA story.
Through all of this, Waxman consistently reiterated the movement’s pro-Israel position. Pinsky said he can’t speak for Tepperman on this issue, but that he did learn during the process that the new president and CEO supports Jewish self-determination and the rights of Israelis and Palestinians.
“We’re a progressive Zionist organization. We were clear that we wanted a candidate who shared that outlook on the world,” Pinsky said. “We believe in a dual success idea that holds that Israelis and Palestinians have legitimate rights. Is he within those values? He absolutely is.”
The chair of the search committee also said that one of Tepperman’s best qualities is his ability to listen, moderate conversations and welcome different perspectives.
“We know he’s a beloved rabbi at Bnai Keshet in Montclair. We know that he’s a really respected leader,” Pinsky said. “He also was a leader in broader conversations, some of them around Israel-Palestine. He has done a great job bringing leaders from other faith groups together for constructive dialogue about that.”