The May 2024 public missive by rabbinical students Talia Werber and Steven Goldstein—who left the Pennsylvania-based Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) because of alleged hostility to Zionist voices and an emphasis on social justice narratives steeped in anti-Zionism—may have flown under the radar for many Jews, but it resounded for others, especially those in the liberal movement.
The former students recounted being isolated, shunned and intimidated for their Zionist views, told to “get over” notions of intergenerational Holocaust trauma, while the college was, “de facto, a training ground for anti-Zionist rabbis. Because of RRC’s rabbinical program, protests led by Jewish Voice for Peace and other anti-Israel organizations will count increasing numbers of rabbis among their ranks, training the next generations to oppose Israel and the safety of Israelis—our own people.”
The Reconstructing Judaism movement counts some 95 affiliated congregations worldwide, with three in Canada. In 2018, it changed its name from Reconstructionist Judaism.
At Dorshei Emet in the Montreal island suburb of Hampstead, the news kicked off a passionate and fractious debate, ranging from friendly exchanges to heated arguments on the issue, which threatened to splinter the community.
Consultations with other Reconstructionist congregations took place but weren’t relevant, said president Ellayne Kaplan, telling The CJN that unique in its demographics and practices, “compared to many Canadian and American cities, Montreal has a particularly strong connection to Israel.”
Movement leaders were invited to speak to congregants, learning sessions were held, and a vote was set for March 26, 2025, to decide if Dorshei Emet would remain part of the movement.
The vote to disaffiliate was defeated, with 154 members—or 42 percent—electing to leave, short of the required two-thirds majority. Some 62 percent, or 367 of its adult members, participated. “A very impressive turnout,” Kaplan told The CJN, adding since May 2024 the issue prompted six of its 365 single, couple or family members to leave the congregation, while noting “fluidity” in synagogue affiliation is common.
Between publication of the students’ accounts in The Forward and the vote itself, Kaplan looked for common ground among members, keeping her opinions to herself. “I thought long and hard about how to vote and finally decided that the objective of achieving a more meaningful relationship with the Reconstructionist movement, my Jewish ‘home’ for my entire adult life, was too important to dismiss.”
She rejects any notion that Zionism is a dirty word at Dorshei Emet. “There are members who are deeply concerned about the actions of the Israeli government, but that’s not the same as denouncing Zionism. These concerns may be seen as a reflection of the positions in current Israeli society.”
Nor is it simply saying, “We’re a Zionist community,” says Dorshei Emet’s Rabbi Boris Dolin. “We have to think, what does it mean to be Zionist? Can you be like most people in our community, a supporter of Israel and the Israeli people but not necessarily the government or all of what it does?”
Leading the congregation since 2016, Rabbi Dolin told The CJN “we remember the murders on October 7, but we also remember some of the innocent Palestinians caught in the crossfire, who didn’t cause this, whose lives have now become difficult. That shouldn’t be a controversial statement,” he said, “especially with the values of our community. There’s enough compassion in our hearts to care.”
Long-time member Dan Goldstein says it’s not that simple.
He was appalled at news coming out about the movement and college, telling The CJN that anti-Zionist narratives displayed at the college and in parts of the movement are, if taken to their logical conclusion and at their most reductive, genocidal. “It’s predicated on the violent dismantling of Israel, and a clear example of the double standards when it comes to Jews,” he said.
Goldstein, who voted to disaffiliate, says the call for one multi-ethnic state, or removal of the Jewish state as voiced by the most strident anti-Israel voices who have found common cause with liberal anti-Zionists, are calling for its destruction. They are “advocating for genocide of a certain group, because that’s what the destruction of the State of Israel effectively means, as we saw very well on October 7. And these are accepted views within the mainstream.”
In a pre-vote message to members, Rabbi Dolin reiterated the ‘big tent’ approach. “We welcome mainstream Zionists for whom Israel’s existence is paramount as well as those who deeply question the basic tenets of Zionism and actions of the Israeli government.”
Echoing Reconstructing Judaism president Rabbi Deborah Waxman’s May 2024 message, he noted “we’ve never had a litmus test for whether someone’s views on Israel might exclude them from participation in our community. Instead, we do our best to listen compassionately to multiple viewpoints and learn from them. Is a member’s attitude towards Israel the key element of that person’s connection to our community? Do all of us have to agree?”
He said there is, however, agreement on Israel’s right to exist and defend itself, but with “different opinions on how these concepts are played out,” adding a connection to Israel remains part of “what it means to be Reconstructionist,” as conceived byfounder Mordecai Kaplan a century ago.
Rabbi Dolin said he was shocked by news coming out of the movement, and felt some leadership responses were lacking. “But I’ve also been proud to hear from many at Dorshei Emet and other Reconstructionist rabbis who support Israel in a way that aligns with my values. In traditional, insular Montreal, it’s not always possible to openly say you support Israel’s existence but question its government’s actions, settlements, or advocate for Palestinian rights.”
For synagogue president Kaplan, ending her term next month, the debate yielded important takeaways. “I learned that our congregation cares deeply about Israel and Zionism. I am proud of our congregation’s approach to problem-solving in a truly Reconstructionist manner and of our congregation’s ‘wide tent’—that we may not always agree, even on matters as serious as this one, that we can still value and respect one another’s ideas.”
Dorshei Emet has struck a committee to examine its positions on Israel and Zionism, its relationship to Reconstructing Judaism, and its policies and practices from which it dissents, while ensuring its voice is heard in the movement.
“We really shined as Reconstructionists,” Rabbi Dolin told The CJN. “We held meetings, voted, studied history and values, brought in speakers, and used a values-based approach to decide what’s best for our community.”
When his rabbinical colleagues call themselves anti-Zionist, “most, if not all, at different levels mean, ‘We love the land of Israel, we connect with the people and the history.’ Some at different levels say they don’t believe it needs to be only where Jews are in power and can do what has been done to people who are not Jewish. Or it means that it should be a democratic state where Jews and Palestinians live in peace together as equals, but not necessarily where one is in power.”
Movement leadership that met with members was unquestionably Zionist, says Goldstein, “but there is a tolerance of views effectively—if one really understands the facts of the region and the complexity and history—advocating for genocide. We’re talking about complete destruction of everything there, and the people there, ‘From the river to the sea’; that’s unique to Jews.
“If people within the movement were harbouring racist ideologies towards any other group, surely, they would be shown the door. So why does a Zionist rabbinical college and movement tolerate these racist attitudes, these genocidal attitudes, when it comes to Jews?”
Meanwhile, Rabbi Dolin says Dorshei Emet affirmed its values “that there are many ways to be a Zionist. If people in the community can’t see their Judaism as part of that diversity, then we love them and we’re sad they’re going, but it’s clear that this is not a community they feel comfortable in.”
Congregant Eric Caplan is an associate professor at McGill University with expertise in Reconstructionism and Jewish education, telling The CJN this debate is different than other ideological debates amongst Jews, as the issue focuses on the significance of the State of Israel and its place in Jewish psychology.
“It’s not comparable to past discussions, over whether the rabbi officiates at an intermarriage or same-sex marriage. These were all healthy conversations, but didn’t have anywhere near the emotional baggage brought to them as this one did.” His own vote against disaffiliation was based not on Zionism, “but on debate. What constitutes a position that if a Jew takes it, I’m prepared to say they’ve crossed some sort of line, and I feel that I can’t converse with them?”
Rabbi Dolin agrees, referencing Passover’s lesson of the Four Sons. “The evil child sits at the table and challenges you, you don’t say, ‘Get the hell out of my community’. You say, ‘Let’s talk about it’. They’re part of the family whether you like it or not. Jewish tradition, not liberal Reconstructionist tradition, reminds us that these people need to be at our table… Many people will not agree with this, but it’s important to learn about what Jewish Voice for Peace says, to invite people calling themselves anti-Zionist into the community. If we’re so threatened hearing another viewpoint that we can’t open up to that, we need to rethink the strength of our Zionism.”
Earlier this month, Rabbi Waxman announced her resignation come summer 2026 after 13 years of leadership, not over internal Zionism debates but as a matter of generational change. In the wake of last year’s seminary controversy, Waxman wrote in The Forward that “in contrast to the approach taken by many—if not most—Jewish institutions, we do not impose a litmus test around our positions on Israel. At our rabbinical school, the boundaries we draw are behavioral rather than political.”
Despite the furor, Goldstein is staying at Dorshei Emet, which he says is still more aligned to his values. “If the vote were held again, I would still vote to disaffiliate, but I can accept the result.” Despite the number and volume of anti-Zionist voices in the debate he says, “We are unabashedly a Zionist congregation, in terms of leadership. So notwithstanding that the vote didn’t go the way I wanted to, I can’t think of another congregation that’s better suited to me.”
Eric Caplan says the North American data shows Jews between the ages of 20 and 40 have far more concerns about the State of Israel’s direction than their older peers. “These people have grown up in a very different set of realities and we have to recognize that. If things continue as they are, it’s going to grow, and the Jewish community has to figure out a way of continuing to dialogue.”
The term ‘anti-Zionism’ is used very broadly he says, “but when you delve into it and look at what people say, you realize it is not very helpful in helping us understand this particular moment.” For the most part, anti-Zionism as it exists within the Reconstructionist movement, he says, “doesn’t cross for me a boundary that makes it impossible to imagine remaining in conversation with these people. It’s a bad move for the community to divorce itself from people that it could actually continue to have a conversation with, because if the conversation wasn’t based on terminology but instead based on values, they would find, I think, that there’s a lot of shared values.”
The movement and college (which ordains about 10 rabbis annually) certify the next generation of Reconstructionist rabbis and leaders, says Goldstein, “who are going out into communities, will have pulpits, and will spread their ideology. That was my concern.”
Educational institutions are obligated to a degree of plurality, he says, “but the standard is usually drawn when it comes to genocidal ideology, and that’s my problem: the double standard. It seems to me that to Jews and Jews alone, especially when it’s our movement, because we’re really a tiny minority in this world, our communal institutions have an obligation not to tolerate it. What does it tell everybody else?”
(Rabbis Tina Grimberg and Liz Bolton of Toronto’s Darchei Noam and Ottawa’s Or Haneshamah Reconstructionist synagogues could not be reached for comment before press time.)
