Since the founding of Congregation B'nai Tikvah as the first Reconstructionist congregation in the area, I have often been asked about the relationship between the Reconstructionist Movement and the Jewish Renewal Movement. In truth, there are many similarities and a great deal of cross-over exists between the movements. It is often the case that people who find Reconstructionism appealing will find the Renewal approach to Judaism appealing, as well - and vice versa. Many of the leading teachers in Renewal today are rabbis who have been ordained Reconstructionist.

On the face of it, this is actually quite remarkable because the movements began in rather different ways and their founders were individuals of contrasting personalities and temperament. Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, the founder of Reconstructionism, was a rationalist. Although Kaplan was still alive when I attended the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, I did not have the opportunity to personally meet him. Kaplan passed away the year I was ordained, in 1983, at 103 years of age. I did, however, have frequent contact with Kaplan's daughter, Judith Eisenstein, and Kaplan's son-in-law, Rabbi Ira Eisenstein, who took over the leadership of the movement after Kaplan and was, himself, largely responsible for establishing the Reconstructionist Movement as an independent branch, distinct from the Conservative Movement from which it emerged.

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, widely regarded as the grandfather of Jewish Renewal, was, like Kaplan, raised in a traditional Jewish household. Whereas Kaplan started out Orthodox and is best described as a rationalist thinker, Zalman Schachter-Shalomi was ordained as a Chabad Chasidic rabbi from the Lubavitch Yeshiva in Crown Heights, in 1947, and was (Reb Zalman passed away in 2014) of a mystical bent. Kaplan and Schachter-Shalomi are similar in that they both departed significantly from the Judaism they initially embraced, and that they both developed approaches to Judaism which would prove to be highly influential and appealing to large numbers of contemporary followers.

Mordecai Kaplan's Judaism was deeply influenced by the disciplines of sociology and psychology, and by the American ideals of democracy and equality. Zalman Schachter-Shalomi has forged an approach to Judaism which is eclectic and interdisciplinary, drawing not only from Chasidism and Kabbalah, but from the other great world religions, as well. In 1975, Reb Zalman became Professor of Religion in Jewish Mysticism and Psychology of Religion at Temple University in Philadelphia.

While I was studying for the rabbinate at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, I was also working on my masters degree in Comparative World Religions down the street at Temple University. It was there that I first met Reb Zalman. Prior to rabbinical school, in Philadelphia, I had majored in East Asian religions at the University of Wisconsin and attended Lubavitch yeshivas, as Reb Zalman had. When we met, I felt an immediate sense of closeness to him and soon became part of the inner circle which met regularly at his home for discussion and engagement in various spiritual practices. We didn't specifically refer to them back then as renewalist but they included sacred dance, chanting, various forms of yoga and meditation.

For whatever reason, Philadelphia seems to have provided a nurturing environment for alternative Jewish movements. While Mordecai Kaplan taught at the Conservative Movement's Jewish Theological Seminary, in New York, the Reconstructionist Movement took root in Philadelphia when the Rabbinical College was established there in 1967. While Reb Zalman Schacter-Shalomi was teaching at Temple University, he was also building what, at that time, was called the P'nai Or Religious Fellowship. It was the forerunner of what is today known as Aleph - the Alliance for Jewish Renewal.

Mordecai Kaplan initially attracted Jews who were no longer able to believe in the Judaism with which they had been brought up. He offered an intellectually vigorous approach to Judaism which first found expression in his book Judaism as a Civilization - Toward the Reconstruction of American Jewish Life, published for the first time in 1934. Kaplan's well-known quote - tradition has a vote, not a veto - continues to aptly characterize Reconstructionist congregations, whose members seek to meaningfully blend tradition and contemporary life.

Reb Zalman Schacter-Shalomi emerged on the scene as somewhat of a Jewish guru figure offering inspiration and meaning to those hungry for spirituality. He has remained on the forefront as an innovator and important spiritual teacher to this day. Reb Zalman held the World WIsdom Chair at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorodo. The chair holder is "an individual who exemplifies with distinction the scholar/practitioner traditions of a world religion or humanistic discipline, serving as special guide and elder...and provides for the integration of world wisdom traditions with modern culture."

While Jewish Renewal began as a grass roots movement and considers itself transdenominational, it has in recent years grown more institutionally conscious and organizationally sophisticated. There are approximately 40 Renewal groups currently affiliated with Aleph. The Reconstructionist Movement has come into its own as the 4th major movement in Judaism today. There are approximately 100 congregations currently affiliated with the Jewish Reconstructionist Movement.

While Congregation B'nai Tikvah was officially Reconstructionist since its founding in August 1998, the B'nai Tikvah Reconstructionist Chavura continues to be unofficially Renewalist in spirit, sharing an openness to exploration and experimentation, and a willingness to embrace ideas and practices which contribute to spiritual health and well-being.