Position Paper on Non-Jewish Partner Policy

Abstract

This paper was written in 2013 as the faculty of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) was considering a policy barring prospective rabbinical students from being partnered with non-Jews. Composed by Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D., prior to her assuming the presidency of Reconstructing Judaism, it recommends that RRC set aside this policy and replace it with a clearly articulated preference that rabbinical students create for themselves homes with rich Jewish practice, and a requirement that children in the home be raised exclusively in the Jewish tradition. The recommendation emerges from a review of classical Reconstructionist positions as articulated by Mordecai M. Kaplan, the 1968 and 1979 Reconstructionist stands on patrilineal descent, the nature of religious authority, the impact of second-wave feminism on American Jewish life, and consideration of universalism versus particularism. The ultimate conclusion is that RRC’s mission is to attract Jews to Jewish living and not to police boundaries and that adopting a more inclusive partner status policy is an affirmation of key Reconstructionist principles, including fostering diverse expressions of Jewish identity and inclusive Jewish communities, and an authentic step in an evolving understanding of the Jewish civilization.