Shira Singelenberg is a native of Bethesda, Md. She said she grew up in an environment that fostered curiosity and questioning and one in which Shabbat dinner was a revered and memorable time. She received her BA degree from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, where she majored in history with a minor in medieval and early studies.
When the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College changed our admissions policy to allow for the possibility that Jews partnered with non-Jews could become rabbis, we did so out of the understanding that in the 21st-century Jewish behavior and commitments–religious, cultural, secular–are more important than Jewish status. We acted to meet Jews in the realities of their complex lives—to engage with them, to raise up leaders from among them, and together to build the Jewish future. We have been inspired and moved by the powerful and passionate students who have enrolled at RRC since this policy change, some because of their non-Jewish partners and more in support of this principle.
Rabbi Alex Weissman remembers walking into the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote for the first time. It was November 2010, and he was a 27-year-old Tufts University graduate who had held a few jobs with community and service-minded organizations.
As the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College continues to hone rabbinic education to meet the needs of rapidly changing Jewish communities, it has tapped two members of its 2017 graduating class to help put its ambitious plans into practice.
