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date: 22 February 2020

Abstract and Keywords

The Reconstructionist movement perceives Judaism as the evolving religious civilization of the Jewish people. This chapter demonstrates Reconstructionism's concern for ethics by identifying the movement's assumptions about how and why Jews should act in the world. As shaping actual Jewish living has continually been its major goal, the movement eventually developed what is now called values-based decision-making that would guide collective as well as personal ethical deliberation and concrete action.

Keywords: Jewish ethics, Judaism, Reconstructionist movement, decision-making

David A. Teutsch

David A. Teutsch is the Louis and Myra Wiener Professor of Contemporary Jewish Civilization and Director of the Levin-Lieber Program in Jewish Ethics at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where he served as president for nearly a decade. He is the author or editor of dozens of articles and twenty books, including A Guide to Jewish Practice: Everyday Living (2011) and the Kol Haneshamah prayerbook series. A past president of the Society of Jewish Ethics and of the Academic Coalition for Jewish Bioethics, he is an internationally known consultant and trainer who has received three honorary degrees. He received his A.B. from Harvard University, M.A. and ordination from Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, and Ph.D. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

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