Deborah Waxman

Deborah Waxman is an American rabbi and the president and CEO of Reconstructing Judaism (the merged organization of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and Jewish Reconstructionist Communities). Waxman was inaugurated as the president of both on October 26, 2014. She previously served as the vice-president for governance for the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.

Scholarship Waxman has focused her scholarly work on American Jewish history. She is a member of the Academic Council of the American Jewish Historical Society. Her topics of research include American Jewish history, Jewish identity and peoplehood, women in American Judaism, and Mordecai Kaplan. She has published articles in academic and Jewish journals and presented at conferences.

As an undergraduate religion major at Columbia College, Waxman began her religious scholarship. She earned a Master of Hebrew Letters from and was ordained as a rabbi by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1999. She completed a PhD in American Jewish History at Temple University. She also earned a certificate in Jewish Women's Studies from RRC in conjunction with Temple University.

Reconstructionist movement leadership

Administrator and strategic planner Waxman has held a leadership role in the Reconstructionist movement since 2003, when she became the Vice President for Governance of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC).

From 2006 to 2008 RRC undertook a strategic planning process to serve as a 5-year guide for the organization. Waxman was central in the strategic plan's development. The "Key Issues" addressed by the plan included: demographics of the Jewish community, image and influence, and the educational program. under the leadership of RRC President Rabbi Dan Ehrenkrantz. Ehrenkrantz explained "our congregations voted to restructure, closing the doors of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation (JRF) and bringing together most movement activities under one roof at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC).

On October 9, 2013, that more broadly structured RRC named Deborah Waxman as its next president, the first to be appointed to lead the new RRC organization. She is believed to be the first woman rabbi to head a joint Jewish congregational union and Jewish seminary.

Pulpit rabbi Waxman served as High Holy Days rabbi at Congregation Bet Havarim in Syracuse, New York, for 11 years.

Personal life Waxman was born and raised in West Hartford, Connecticut. She has two siblings. She was raised a Conservative Jew and was one of the first girls in Connecticut to have a Conservative Bat Mitzvah on a Saturday morning (in 1979). Her father was a traveling salesman and her mother was president of the sisterhood of their synagogue in Bloomfield, Connecticut. Panel participant. Reconstructing Religious Authority in a Democratic Context: Early Reconstructionist Approaches and their Contemporary Resonances (2011) at the Association for Jewish Studies Conference Cultural Production: The Challenge of Implementing Reconstructionism (2010) at the Association for Jewish Studies Conference Jewish Peoplehood and Rugged Individualism: Creating a 'We-Feeling' for American Jews (2008) keynote address at the Super Sunday of Jewish Learning