Talia Werber, a former student at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RCC) in Wyncote (Cheltenham Township), was recently featured in Moment Magazine in an article titled “Jews and Moral Injury: Finding faith after communities betray our values“.
Werber, described as “a proud Zionist”, enrolled at RCC to become a rabbi but found that “anti-Zionist voices were platformed by staff” and “students who expressed any empathy towards Zionism or Israel were vilified,” the article says.
An excerpt:
Post-October 7, Werber watched fellow students equate Zionism with white supremacy and bigotry, and it all came to a head at a student association meeting also attended by staff, including the school’s president. Werber and a handful of other Zionist students were called racist by other students because they had opposed the student association’s donating to a Black Jewish group that had referred, on social media, to Israel’s actions as settler colonialism, apartheid and genocide.
In May 2024, Werber and fellow student Steven Goldstein wrote a Forward.com opinion piece about their experiences. The article alleges that “RRC fosters a culture of intimidation that dissuades students from expressing any positive connection to Israel” and that the institution is a de facto “training ground for anti-Zionist rabbis.”
The authors said they withdrew from RRC in early 2024.
Following its publication, Rabbi Alex Weissman, director of cultural and spiritual life at RRC, sent an email implying that Werber and Goldstein had spoken “unethically.”
“‘If the one who testified is a false witness… you will sweep out evil from your midst… life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot’ (Dev. 19:21),” Weissman wrote. “These verses are both comforting and chilling. They are comforting because they recognize the immense power of speech and the need for consequences when people speak unethically. … On the other hand, these verses are chilling in their retributive and fear-based approach to making things right.”
The Moment Magazine article goes on to note that the American Psychiatric Association will add the concept of moral injury to the DSM-5 in September. It will appear under the section Other Conditions That May Be a Focus of Clinical Attention.
The diagnostic manual says moral injury occurs “when the focus of clinical attention is a moral, religious, or spiritual problem. Moral problems include experiences that disrupt one’s understanding of right and wrong, or sense of goodness of oneself, others or institutions.”
According to RRC’s Facebook page, the college is the only seminary affiliated with Reconstructionist Judaism and is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. For a history of the college by Rabbi Waxman, you can click here.
For all the latest news, follow us on Facebook or sign up for Glenside Local’s “Daily Buzz” newsletter here.