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Dan Ehrenkrantz is an American Reconstructionist rabbi, currently serving as the outgoing president [1] [2] of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, Pennsylvania. [3]
Ehrenkrantz graduated magna cum laude with B.A. degree in Religion from Tufts University. He received an M.A. in Hebrew Letters degree and rabbinic ordination from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) in 1989.
He served as rabbi of Congregation Bnai Keshet in Montclair, N.J. from 1988 to 2002, where he developed a new family education program. He was active in local programs for interfaith understanding. He served as president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, the professional association of Reconstructionist rabbis, from 1999 to 2001.
Prior to his appointment as president of RRC in 2002, Ehrenkrantz served both as a visiting instructor for courses at RRC on Biblical Narrative and Poetry and the Challenges of the Rabbinate, and as a spiritual mentor to RRC students. In addition to his responsibilities as president, he is the Aaron and Marjorie Ziegelman Professor at RRC, where he has taught courses on Contemporary Jewish Literature, Modern and Contemporary Hebrew Literature and Darshanut, creative interpretation of traditional texts, as a member of the faculty. Ehrenkrantz has lectured at institutions of higher education throughout the country. He is the first graduate of RRC to serve as its president. [4]
As of June 3, 2012 the Reconstructionist movement was restructured. RRC is now the primary organization of the movement, headed by Ehrenkrantz. [5] [6] On February 28, 2013, Ehrenkrantz announced that he will resign his position at RRC when a replacement is selected. [7] [8]
Ehrenkrantz has been listed annually by The Daily Beast magazine from 2007 through 2012 as one of the fifty most influential rabbis in America. [9] [10]
His writings have appeared in a wide range of Jewish and general-interest publications, including Jewish Week, the Jerusalem Report, the Charlotte Observer and Child magazine. He has contributed commentary to The Guide to Jewish Practice (RRC Press) on the topics of kashrut, tzedakah, bioethics, mourning and speech; and authored an essay in the forthcoming The Dream of Zion, edited by Jeffrey Salkin (Jewish Lights Publishing). [11]
Ehrenkrantz has written widely on American Judaism, the Reconstructionist movement, and on the role of religion in America. He often serves as a spokesperson for the Reconstructionist movement in Judaism, meeting with Jewish leaders as well as political and other national figures. [12]
In his inaugural address, he gave a definition of Reconstructionist Judaism:
“[The] Reconstructionist movement is the only movement in Jewish life which doesn't imagine that Judaism is the religion which God created. And if God didn't create Judaism, neither did God choose the Jewish people to carry the one true religion into the world. Neither does the purpose of all creation lie disproportionately within our particular community. Jewish study at the RRC creates a love of Judaism and a love of Jewish life without relying on ideas of Jewish supremacy. The RRC has created a model of religious passion and allegiance combined with tolerance and respect for others. .. This leap from the medieval to the contemporary world is one which we need the rest of the Jewish community, and the rest of the world, to take with us.. What we are attempting to achieve at the RRC and in the Reconstructionist movement is crucial if our world is to survive the present challenges we face.” [13]
In a 2007 interview with the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, Ehrenkrantz outlined what connects Reconstructionist Jews. “Q: What unites Reconstructionist Jews?
DE: They are united in being interested and open to questions of Jewish life, they are united in placing community as an extraordinarily high value. Different Reconstructionist congregations will have very different atmosphere in halachic observance, in terms of Hebrew/English mix in the service, but everybody in Reconstructionist congregations will speak in very similar terms about their congregation. It has to do with how the synagogues are run, insisting that members take Judaism and create it for themselves, and the process of doing that brings people closer together. We decide together what Judaism is and that creates a very different communal atmosphere. ” [14]
Ehrenkrantz advocates a link between spirituality and religion. He told the Hartford Courant in 2008 that “spirituality is ‘the awareness of being connected to something larger than ourselves...’You can have spirituality without religion, says Ehrenkrantz, though both suffer from the lack of the other. Religion without spirituality would be empty, he said, and spirituality without a framework like religion is difficult because, he said, most people ‘need the discipline, community and constant reminders that religious traditions offer.’” [15]
Reconstructionist Judaism is a Jewish movement that, based on the concepts developed by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1881–1983) views Judaism as a progressively evolving civilization rather than a religion. The movement originated as a semi-organized stream within Conservative Judaism, developed between the late 1920s and the 1940s before seceding in 1955, and established a rabbinical college in 1967. Reconstructionist Judaism is recognized by many scholars as one of the four major streams of Judaism alongside Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform.
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The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) is a Jewish seminary in Wyncote, Pennsylvania. It is the only seminary affiliated with Reconstructionist Judaism. It is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. RRC has an enrollment of approximately 80 students in rabbinic and other graduate programs.
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The Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association (RRA) founded in 1974, is the professional association of rabbis affiliated with Reconstructionist Judaism. It has approximately 300 members, most of whom are graduates of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. The RRA is a member of a number of national coalitions including the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
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Jacob J. Staub is a rabbi, author and poet. In 1977 he was ordained as a rabbi at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. He was Academic Dean of the College from 1989 to 2004, and the editor of the Reconstructionist magazine from 1983 to 1989. In 2009 he was Professor of Jewish Philosophy and Spirituality and Chair of the Department of Medieval Jewish Civilization at the Reconstructionist Rabbinic College. In 1998, he founded at RRC the first program in Jewish Spiritual Direction at a rabbinical seminary, and he continues to direct it. He has written two books on Gersonides' philosophy of creation and Reconstructionist Judaism. He has written essays on Mordecai Kaplan's thought.
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Jack Cohen was an Israeli-American Reconstructionist rabbi, educator, philosopher and author. Cohen held a PhD from Columbia University in the philosophy of education. In 1943 he was ordained as a rabbi by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS) and, soon after, started to teach courses there. Cohen was one of the distinguished students of Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, the founder of the Reconstructionist Movement, and was one of the founders of Kehillat Mevakshei Derech, a synagogue in Israel. Rabbi Dr. Jack Cohen was Honorary Chairman at Kaplan Center for Jewish Peoplehood and director of the Hillel Foundation at the Hebrew University for 23 years.
Rabbi Dayle A. Friedman is a pioneer in the development of a Jewish spiritual vision for aging, spiritual care and healing. She was the founding director of Hiddur: The Center for Aging and Judaism at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, which provided education, spiritual resources, and scholarship for elders and their caregivers.
Daniel S. Brenner is an American rabbi. Brenner is chief of Education and Program at Moving Traditions. Brenner was the founding executive director of Birthright Israel NEXT and he directed graduate-level training programs at Auburn Theological Seminary and at CLAL- the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, both in New York City. In 2009, he was named by Newsweek Magazine as one of the fifty most influential rabbis in America.
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