Communal Tragedy

As individuals, we all know pain and loss. It is the rare person who escapes sorrow. But when one of us hurts, others are there to offer comfort. Communal tragedy is different. When something bad happens to us as a community—whether that is a school, a town, a people, or a country—we struggle to figure out how to tend to our own wounds while taking care of each other. Drawing on compassion, empathy, justice, and love, we can bring out the best in each other, and perhaps, find a theology of hope in the midst of despair.

Latest Rituals

“Hashem yereicham, Source of Mercy and comfort, be with us now…”
a prayer book on a lectern with a Star of David
“May each life be treated as a sacred treasure, as You have intended.”
three hands--one with brown skin, one with white skin, one with black skin touch each other over the image of a world map
“May the One who blessed our common ancestor Abraham bless and heal his children…”
a stream running over rocks
“I want to be carried into a deep, deep salty sea of sound, rhythm, in tune with oceanic harmonies…”
a collage of multicultual faces
“Peace for my Muslim cousins / Is peace for my Jewish siblings…”
the desert in Israel
A new Shabbat practice created to share light with all of whom are suffering unjustly.
two shabbat candles are lit as someone's hands wave in the light of Shabbat
“Prayer, the sacred blessing where all our limbs can be rewoven / returning us into our whole…”
a person in silhoutte against the sunset
“There is a time to make war, / there is a time to make peace. / In each soul both sing.” Listen to the tune hardest to hear.
a peace sign painted on a stone
This powerful new song calls for the release of the hostages.
the desert in Israel

The Reconstructionist Network

Serving as central organization of the Reconstructionist movement

Training the next generation of groundbreaking rabbis

Modeling respectful conversations on pressing Jewish issues

Curating original, Jewish rituals, and convening Jewish creatives

Jewish Spiritual Autobiography

 Writing a spiritual autobiography helps you to discover how teachers, touchstones, symbols and stories have led you to make meaning and understand the sacred in your personal story. In this immersion, join Ritualwell’s Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer, a writer and spiritual director, to map out and narrate your most sacred life experiences. Four sessions starting May 16, 2024. 

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The Reconstructionist Network