Students Withdraw From Reconstructionist Rabbinical College Over Its Anti-Zionism

This is just another reminder that progressive ideology has embedded itself in everything.

From Forward:

Anti-Zionism forced us to withdraw from Reconstructionist Rabbinical CollegeThe Reconstructionist Rabbinical College will graduate 11 new rabbis this Sunday. Of them, at least half identify as anti-Zionists or have been participating in anti-Israel protests and actions.By contrast, when we and other students formed the RRC Students Supporting Israel chapter after Oct. 7, only eight students joined out of the 60 at RRC. Over a grueling year of isolation, three members withdrew from the school (including us), and another three left the group.Our time at RRC was marked with sorrow and shock, as we experienced an increasingly vociferous anti-Zionism among the student body, the steady erosion of civil discourse and the seminary’s inability to transmit the Jewish narrative to those it will ordain as future spiritual leaders of the Jewish people.RRC is the rabbinical school of Reconstructing Judaism, founded on the scholarship of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, who famously articulated that Judaism is a civilization and at its center is the Jewish people. Kaplan was devoted to establishing the state of Israel as a primary hub of creative and meaningful renaissance of the Jewish civilization, in relationship with other hubs in the diaspora.We believed upon entering RRC that our rabbinical school would teach us to serve the Jewish people, emphasizing the centrality of Jewish peoplehood and support for our survival and self-determination.Instead, we came to find that RRC is, de facto, a training ground for anti-Zionist rabbis. Because of RRC’s rabbinical program, protests led by Jewish Voice for Peace and other anti-Israel organizations will count increasing numbers of rabbis among their ranks, training the next generations to oppose Israel and the safety of Israelis — our own people.

Tags: College Insurrection, Gaza - 2023 War, Hamas, Israel, Religion

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