You'll find dozens of articles and books on the subject.
But one sentence embodies its essence: Reconstructionists see Judaism as an evolving religious civilization.
Evolving -- because Reconstructionists engage in an ongoing dialog designed to keep Jewish principles and practices meaningful to the world in which we live, rather than set in stone.
Religious -- because we embrace the core of Judaism based upon our shared religious inheritance.
Civilization -- because in addition to these religious underpinnings, Judaism includes our far broader cultural, historical and intellectual heritage.
Reconstructionism doesn't easily fit into a "straight line" model of Judaism from "most traditionally observant" (Orthodox, Chasidic) to "least traditionally observant" (Reform). Instead, we say that tradition has "a vote, but not a veto" as we examine how best to live as Jews in the twenty-first century.
One example: the first girl to have a Bat Mitzvah was the daughter of the founder of Reconstructionism.
"A chavurah or havurah ( חבורה -- 'fellowship', plural havuroth) is a small group of like-minded Jews who assemble for the purposes of facilitating Shabbat and holiday prayer services, sharing communal experiences such as lifecycle events, and Jewish learning."
As the group expands in both size and range of activities, many members have started to question whether the name "Havurah" still adequately communicates who we are and everything that we do. This discussion is ongoing, and may lead to a name change at some time in the future.
Day-to-day operation of the Havurah is in the hands of an 8-person board of directors, elected by the membership to staggered three-year terms. The board normally meets monthly.
Board members select a Chair, Co-Chair, Secretary and Treasurer, and appoint committees responsible for specific areas of operation (Beit Sefer, membership, newsletter, etc.)
All major policy decisions are made by vote of the membership, normally preceded by significant open discussion with an attempt to reach as great a community consensus as possible.
In order to keep the community broadly participatory, general practice is that members rotate off the board after serving one or two terms.
Unless otherwise noted in the calendar, Shabbat services and most other events are at the Jewish Community Center, 2935 Birch Hollow Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48108. MAP
To accommodate the size of our High Holiday services, for several years they've been at the Unitarian-Universalist Church, at the corner of Ann Arbor-Saline Road and Ellsworth Road. MAP
Various small-group events and most meetings happen in members' homes or other local venues. If that's the case, it'll be noted in the Grapevine and online calendar.
As a participatory community, we're proud that our lay members play a major role in our services. High Holiday and last-Friday Shabbat services are led by longtime Havurah member Aura Ahuvia, a current Rabbinical student. Leadership of the second-Friday Shabbat and other services rotates among a number of other members.
Opportunities abound for all who'd like to share the service responsibilities -- from reading a Psalm to leading a song -- and we draw strength from this community-wide involvement. In light of our values, more experienced leaders work with other members to share their knowledge and skills. Several members have had their first-ever experience reading directly from the Torah at one of our services.
People who attend our services for the first time often describe them as informal yet very well-run. You're also likely to find that they're more musical, spiritual, and participatory compared to traditional congregations.
Our core values include a simple principle: participation in prayer should always be freely available to everyone. Based on that, our High Holiday services are open to all, and no tickets are necessary to attend.
Although we won't harangue you for money during the service, we request that non-members who can afford to do so strongly consider making a donation to help cover the considerable costs of our High Holiday services. An envelope for this purpose is available at the welcome desk for the service.
Or even better, why don't you consider becoming a member?
Our community warmly welcomes everyone who is committed to its values and the principles of Reconstructionist Judaism. Among our long-time active members are many singles and single-parent families, families of mixed religious backgrounds, and same-sex families.
It's right here, online. Just click here and you'll see a membership application in a box right on top of this page; hit the printer icon in that box to print it out.
We have a strong commitment to keep membership in our community affordable and available to all, regardless of income.
We ask each member family for a minimum annual contribution of $600, which covers our actual cost to operate the community. If desired, dues can be paid in installments.
For those to whom this amount creates a hardship, reduced dues are available on request, although all members are asked to pay some amount. Please contact membership chair Sarai Brachman Shoup for more information on reduced dues. All inquiries are confidential.
Families that are blessed with greater-than-average financial resources are asked to voluntarily increase their dues contribution, to as much as $1200. This allows us to accommodate reduced dues memberships without harming the community's finances.
Full-time students may join individually for $50.
There are no other required costs for membership, such as initiation fees or building fund donations.
For more information about membership, please contact our Membership Chair here.
To view or print a membership application, please click here.
Naturally, we'd like everyone interested in our activities to become a member. But we understand that there may sometimes be individual reasons for not joining while still wanting to take part in some of our community's activities.
In fact, we strongly encourage non-members to attend services or other events in order to get the flavor of who we are.
Because we believe that the opportunity to pray should always be freely available to all, our services (including High Holidays) are open to members and non-members alike. Most activities are also open to non-members. At some limited-capacity events, we may first offer the available spots to members, in order to accommodate all members who wish to attend. And we often charge non-members more for activities, to help pay for overhead costs that are subsidized by members' dues.
For more information about membership, please contact our Membership Chair here.
We'd like every family whose children attend our Beit Sefer to be members of the Havurah, but we recognize that may not be possible in individual circumstances. So we don't require membership as a condition of enrolling children into the religious school.
Because the Havurah subsidizes the school's operation with money from our members' dues, we ask non-member children to pay tuition that reflects the actual cost of operating the school, rather than the subsidized amount paid by members' children.
Not at all. We encourage everyone who's interested to sign up as a site user, whether you're a member or not. Registering lets you post in the forums and add article comments.
Havurah members get full access to all information on the website, such as our membership list and board minutes, and can also add items to the calendar and submit website articles. Member access is activated manually once you register as a site user.
Most of the site is open to all, with a few exceptions.
For example, everyone can read the ReconChat forum and article comments, but you need to register on the site to post. Registration is quick and easy, and everyone is welcome. This helps us to avoid unwanted spam or harassment.
Havurah members have full site access, which includes our membership directory and Board minutes. This helps safeguard members' privacy and lets us make important information quickly and easily available to members. Havurah members can also submit articles or make calendar entries directly on the website.
Everyone can register as a site user, which lets you post to the forums, add comments to articles, or submit new weblinks. You don't need to be a Havurah member; just go to the registration form to sign up.
In addition, Havurah members who register get access to some additional sections, such as the most current membership directory.
Log in to the site and look for the "Members & Users" menu in the left column of the page to access the information that's available to Havurah members.
Here's what to check if you're a member but don't see that menu.
(1) Make sure you've registered to use the site and clicked the activation link in your registration email.
(2) There's a delay between the time you register and the time you're set up on the site as a Havurah member. The website database isn't directly linked to our member list, so we need to manually set up your full site access.
(3) Make sure you're currently logged into the site (also in the left column). If you don't tell us who you are, we can't know that you're a member!
(4) But if it's been more than a couple of days since you registered and you still don't see the Member menu when you log in, please contact our Webmaven.
Any Havurah member can add items directly to our calendar. So if you're involved in organizing a meeting or event, here's how to do it.
(1) Log onto the web site. (You need to be already registered on the site as a Havurah member.)
(2) On the "Members & Users" menu in the left column, click "Add a Calendar Event". (You can also click "Add an Event" at the bottom of any Calendar page.)
(3) Write a short, descriptive subject. Up to 45 characters will display in the monthly calendar as the item title.
(4) Pick the appropriate category.
(5) Write a description, if necessary. Include details you think are important. If you're comfortable with the word editor, you can include styled text, weblinks, and so on. Don't put in starting and ending dates and times -- that comes later. But you can include a schedule if appropriate.
(6) At the bottom, enter the location and how to contact someone for more information.
(7) Click the "Calendar" tab on the page (NOT at the top of the screen).
(8) If there is no specific time for the item (like a registration deadline), click the box and just enter the date. Otherwise, include the starting and ending times. Put in a different ending date if it's a multi-day event.
(9) Click the floppy disc icon to the right of the page. You're done!
This gets a little technical. To help the website send you information more quickly, pages are kept "cached" in the webserver's memory. This saves time because the server doesn't have to access multiple files every time someone wants to read a page from the site.
You noticed the downside: the server doesn't know you just added something -- in this case, a comment -- to the page. So it sends you the version that's already in its cache, from before you added your comment.
The good news is that your comment will display the next time the server refreshes its cache, within half an hour.
No. We just stole the names for our website discussion group because people were already familiar with them. But the website forums have nothing to do with our email lists, and posting a comment or a reply here won't send out emails to the lists. What happens on the website stays on the website.
The AARH website is maintained by the Havurah's Marketing Committee, with content supplied by numerous members. It's designed as both a resource for our members and a "public face" of the Havurah in the broader community.
This site is built on a backbone of Joomla! 1.5, which is a publicly-licensed, open-source content management system. (Joomla is a phonetic spelling for the Swahili word "Jumla", which means "all together" or "as a whole".)
A community of hundreds of volunteers worldwide is responsible for Joomla's development and support. They also create "extensions" that allow Joomla! websites to perform all sorts of additional functions (such as our calendar, ReconChat forum, and this FAQ display). You can find out more at the Joomla! website.
The site's "look and feel" comes from the Jamba template, created by the people at Joomlashack.
