Of the 11 new rabbis ordained in the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College’s 2024 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.

And when Werber and Goldstein attempted to form an RRC Students Supporting Israel group after Oct. 7, only eight of 60 students at the Wyncote school joined.

A May 20 JTA story on anti-Israel sentiment at RRC 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.

Yet at RRC’s graduation on May 19, school President Deborah Waxman affirmed the pro-Israel stance of Mordecai Kaplan, the founder of the Reconstructionist movement.

“The stance of the Reconstructionist movement since the time of Mordecai Kaplan to this day is that Israel has a right to exist and is a vital center for Jewish life and the Jewish people,” she said. “We care deeply about the Jewish people across geography, and we stand in solidarity with Israelis.”

But she also said, “At the end of the day, any litmus test we have in the Reconstructionist movement is not about particular stances around Israel.”

Werber and Goldstein left the school because of the hostility they faced for their pro-Israel stances. Rabbi Beryl Trauth-Jurman, a member of the 2024 class who calls himself a Zionist, said, “I can only speak from my personal experience. What I saw is that Steven and Talia’s experience is not reflective of the normal experience at RRC.”

He added: “When I have talked about my feelings for Israel, I have experienced strong feelings, but always that were conducted in a respectful way. After those conversations, there was an abiding sense of respect between both parties.”

Werber and Goldstein talked about what they experienced.

Times Have Changed

Goldstein, also a lawyer, TV producer and civil rights activist, started at RRC in 2005, stopped and came back in the 2020s. He said the culture was different two decades ago.

Back then, a few students were anti-Zionist. But when they went to rallies, they were called in by the administration and told to stop.

“When you go to rallies and are anti-Zionist publicly, you are representing a movement. And the movement is Zionist,” Goldstein said of what the students were told.

RRC was always on the left wing of the political spectrum, according to Goldstein. But it used to have, as he put it, one foot in the mainstream and one foot outside the mainstream.

“But it was always mainstream enough to influence other movements,” he added.

It was the first to have a bat mitzvah. It was also the first to ordain a female rabbi. Today though, the movement no longer toes the line between center and left, according to Goldstein.

“What I found is a completely different institution. One whose anti-Zionist radicalism was now on acid,” he said.

“This Is the Movement”

Werber, a visual artist and writer who used to work in politics, got a strong sense from other students at RRC that they were influenced by their peers.

“I am moved by these other members of our class, and I care about being part of something that’s important,” she said of the sentiment she heard. “There’s a sense that this is the movement that’s important right now.”

Werber said she’s talked to at least two other students about the definition of genocide. When she explained that it includes intent to destroy a people, one student said they didn’t know that.

“They’ll think about it. They’ll stop going to protests,” Werber recalled of their responses.

The Curriculum

RRC’s curriculum that Werber experienced during her three years at the school did not include extensive lessons on Mordecai Kaplan’s positions relating to Israel, according to Werber.

The class on reconstructionism mentioned it in the context of Jewish peoplehood. The class on contemporary Israeli civilization focused on Zionism and on Israel from a sociological perspective. But it was facilitated by students with teachers present.

In a session of the class that Werber heard about, a student called Israel a white supremacist settler colonial country. The teacher didn’t interrupt.

A student in Werber’s session said they had an issue with theocracies. Israel is a democratic state that gives religious minorities the right to vote and gain representation in the Knesset.

“To say that Israel is the theocracy and the one problematic state is quite a jump,” Werber said.

Goldstein said Kaplan’s positions were “omnipresent throughout the curriculum” two decades ago.

“It seemed much more essential to the school to graduate students who believed in essential Kaplanism,” he said.

Pluralism

Waxman has said that RRC is pluralistic. At the same time, pluralism doesn’t preclude shared values, according to Goldstein.

“Every movement has litmus tests that represent their common values. Having common values is part of the covenant that keeps the community together,” he explained. “If you don’t try to have those, that’s where incivility comes in.”

jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com