Deborah Waxman

Waxman has focused her scholarly work on American Jewish history. She is a member of the Academic Council of the American Jewish Historical Society.{{cite web|title=Current Members of the Academic Council, American Jewish Historical Society|url=http://www.ajhs.org/academic/faculty.cfm|publisher=American Jewish Historical Society|access-date=25 November 2013|archive-date=15 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131215034651/http://www.ajhs.org/academic/faculty.cfm|url-status=dead}} 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.{{cite news|last=Schwartzman|first=Bryan|title=Change of Top Leadership at Recon Movement|url=http://www.jewishexponent.com/change-of-top-leadership-at-recon-movement|access-date=25 November 2013|newspaper=Jewish Exponent|date=10 October 2013}} She also earned a certificate in Jewish Women's Studies from RRC in conjunction with Temple University.{{cite web|last=rebgoldie|title=Expanded Clergy Skills Being Cultivated at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College|url=http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/national-news/reconstructionists-pick-first-woman-lesbian-denominational-leader|publisher=The Philadelphia Jewish Voice|access-date=25 November 2013|archive-date=19 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160519214708/http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/national-news/reconstructionists-pick-first-woman-lesbian-denominational-leader|url-status=dead}}

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).{{cite web|title=Reconstructionist Rabbinical College: Rabbi Deborah Waxman, PhD|url=http://www.rrc.edu/administration/rabbi-deborah-waxman-phd?print=1|publisher=Reconstructionist Rabbinical College|access-date=2 December 2013|archive-date=4 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104093441/http://www.rrc.edu/administration/rabbi-deborah-waxman-phd?print=1|url-status=dead}}

From 2006 to 2008 RRC undertook a strategic planning process to serve as a 5-year guide for the organization.{{cite web|title=Creating Change: A Vision for RRC's Future (Strategic Plan, 2008–2013)|url=http://www.rrc.edu/sites/default/files/legacy/RRC_Strat%20Plan.final.pdf|publisher=Reconstructionist Rabbinical College|access-date=2 December 2013|archive-date=15 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131215063503/http://www.rrc.edu/sites/default/files/legacy/RRC_Strat%20Plan.final.pdf|url-status=dead}} 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. Regarding the plan, Waxman stated:

{{blockquote|a Reconstructionist perspective is crucial. Everything we do is informed by the values and ideas of Mordecai M. Kaplan, other members of the "founding" generation, those who came after them, and contemporary Reconstructionist thinkers. That is why developing influential and innovative resources that will let us share those values and ideas with the world is one of the Strategic Plan's highest priorities.}}

In the "Making Change Happen" section of the plan Waxman explained that the ideas the strategic planning committee considered "most potent" include "the expansiveness and creativity inherent in Kaplan's definition of Judaism as the evolving religious civilization of the Jewish people [and] the sense of both empowerment and responsibility embedded in that concept and in the ensuing mandate that every generation of Jews must reconstruct Judaism for its own time." About the committee's motivation, Waxman said:

{{blockquote|We do all this because we know that if we are successful, our graduates will become change agents capable of transmitting RRC's approach to Judaism and religious life, and ultimately making the world a better place. They will foster individual growth and transform institutions, whether they work in synagogues, colleges and universities; hospitals or Jewish communal organizations; or in settings neither we nor they can imagine... Our ultimate goal is transformation writ large—the personal, religious and social transformation of all humanity.}}

During the fourth year of the five-year plan (2012) the Reconstructionist movement as a whole underwent a restructuring. At that point the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation (JRF)--the union of Reconstructionist congregations—and RRC became one organization and RRC then became the "primary national organization" of the Reconstructionist movement,{{cite web|title=Important Notice {{!}} Jewish Reconstructionist Movement Archive|url=http://archive.jewishrecon.org/node/3353|publisher=Reconstructionist Rabbinical College|access-date=2 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131215064350/http://archive.jewishrecon.org/node/3353|archive-date=15 December 2013|url-status=dead}} 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).{{cite web|last=Dan|first=Ehrenkrantz|title=A Changing Landscape|url=http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/a-changing-landscape/|publisher=eJewish Philanthropy|access-date=2 December 2013|date=December 2012}}

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.{{cite news|last=Schwartzman|first=Bryan|title=Change of Top Leadership at Recon Movement|url=http://www.jewishexponent.com/change-of-top-leadership-at-recon-movement|access-date=2 December 2013|newspaper=Jewish Exponent|date=10 October 2013}} She is believed to be the first woman rabbi to head a joint Jewish congregational union and Jewish seminary. Before she began her presidency on January 1st, 2014, Waxman was "working on completing the merged organization's first-ever strategic plan.... Waxman said the organization's goal is to further engage people involved in Reconstructionist Judaism and to provide an avenue into Jewish life — be it cultural, religious or activist — for anyone who is searching. In the wider American landscape, she views Reconstructionism as a strong voice for a progressive religion that is deeply engaged in social-justice issues."

In addition to her experience in strategic planning, Waxman has written grant proposals that have won support from funders such as the Kresge Foundation, Wexner Foundation and Cummings Foundation and has stewarded major RRC donors.

Waxman served as High Holy Days rabbi at Congregation Bet Havarim in Syracuse, New York, for 11 years.{{cite news|last=Cohen|first=Anne|title=Trailblazing Reconstructionist Deborah Waxman Relishes Challenges of Judaism|url=http://forward.com/articles/185252/trailblazing-reconstructionist-deborah-waxman-reli/?p=all|access-date=2 December 2013|newspaper=The Jewish Daily Forward|date=9 October 2013}}

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.

Waxman lives in Elkins Park, in suburban Philadelphia with her partner, Christina Ager, a Jew by choice.

• {{cite thesis |author=Deborah Waxman |date=May 2010 |url=http://digital.library.temple.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/87875 |title=Ethnicity and Faith in American Judaism Reconstructionism as Ideology and Institution, 1935–1959 |publisher=Temple University |degree=Ph.D.}}

• {{cite magazine |last=Waxman |first=Deborah |date=Fall 2010 |title=Distinctiveness and Universalism: How to Remain Jewish if Jewish Isn't Better |magazine=Zeek: A Journal of Jewish Thought and Culture |pages=39–42 |url=https://archive.rrc.edu/sites/default/files/primary_navigation/resources/Zeke/Deborah_Waxman_Zeek_Fall10.pdf |access-date=2020-09-20 |archive-date=2021-05-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511075815/https://archive.rrc.edu/sites/default/files/primary_navigation/resources/Zeke/Deborah_Waxman_Zeek_Fall10.pdf |url-status=dead}}
• {{cite magazine |last1=Waxman |first1=Deborah |first2=Nancy |last2=Fuchs-Kreimer |date=31 January 2012 |title=The Chosen People? Two Perspectives |magazine=Zeek: A Journal of Jewish Thought and Culture |url=http://zeek.forward.com/articles/117482/}} Also available from [https://www.reconstructingjudaism.org/article/rejecting-chosenness-favor-distinctiveness Reconstructing Judaism] and the [https://www.bjpa.org/search-results/publication/14224 Berman Jewish Policy Archive].
• {{cite journal |last=Waxman |first=Deborah |date=Winter 2012 |title=Review of the National Museum of American Jewish History, Philadelphia |journal=Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies |volume=79 |issue=1 |pages=65–75 |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/pennsylvania_history/v079/79.1.waxman.pdf |doi=10.5325/pennhistory.79.1.0065|s2cid=146143394|url-access=subscription }}
• {{cite book |last=Waxman |first=Deborah |year=2010 |chapter=A lady sometimes blows the shofar: Women's religious equality in the postwar reconstructionist movement |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uLUlv-gfjjMC&pg=PA87 |title=A Jewish Feminine Mystique?: Jewish Women in Postwar America |publisher=Rutgers University Press |location=New Brunswick, NJ |isbn=978-0-8135-4792-3 |pages=87–104 |oclc=461323820 |editor=Hasia Diner}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Waxman |first1=Deborah |date=September 2009 |first2=Joyce Galpern |last2=Norden |title=The Challenge of Implementing Reconstructionism: Art, Ideology, and the Society for the Advancement of Judaism's Sanctuary Mural |journal=American Jewish History |volume=95 |issue=3 |pages=195–224 |doi=10.1353/ajh.2009.a408834 |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_jewish_history/v095/95.3.waxman.pdf |url-access=subscription }}
• {{cite book |last=Waxman |first=Deborah |year=2006 |chapter=To Life!: The Four Cups of Feminist Judaism |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HMFYCqW9sesC&pg=PA38 |editor-last=Anisfeld |editor-first=Sharon Cohen |title=The Women's Seder Sourcebook: Rituals and Readings for Use at the Passover Seder |publisher=Jewish Lights Publishing |location=Woodstock, VT |isbn=978-1-58023-232-6 |pages=38–40 |url=http://www.jewishlights.com/page/product/978-1-58023-232-6}}
• {{cite journal |last=Waxman |first=Deborah |date=Spring 2005 |title=The Emergence of an Icon: Yahrtzeit Plaques in 20th-Century American Judaism |journal=The Reconstructionist |volume=69 |issue=2 |pages=58–75 |url=http://archive.rrc.edu/sites/default/files/legacy/reconstructionist/Spring2005.pdf |access-date=21 November 2019 |archive-date=27 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211027105850/https://archive.rrc.edu/sites/default/files/legacy/reconstructionist/Spring2005.pdf |url-status=dead}}
• {{cite book |editor-last=Waxman |editor-first=Deborah |year=2005 |title=Oneg Shabbat: A Weekly Celebration of the Jewish Sabbath |publisher=Hiddur: The Center for Aging and Judaism of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College |location=Wyncote, PA |url=http://archive.rrc.edu/sites/default/files/primary_navigation/resources/SACREDSEASONS-ONEGSHABBAT-2005.PDF }}{{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}

• Panel participant. Mordecai M. Kaplan Reconsidered: The Meaning and Significance of His Legacy for Our Time (2013) at the Association for Jewish Studies Conference{{cite web|title=45th Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies|date=15 November 2013 |url=https://issuu.com/associationforjewishstudies/docs/ajs13program|publisher=Association for Jewish Studies|access-date=1 December 2013|page=61}}
• Panel participant. Reconstructing Religious Authority in a Democratic Context: Early Reconstructionist Approaches and their Contemporary Resonances (2011) at the Association for Jewish Studies Conference{{cite web|title=Resource Guide to the 2011 AJS Conference|url=http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/downloadFile.cfm?FileID=13139|access-date=1 December 2013|page=9}}
• Cultural Production: The Challenge of Implementing Reconstructionism (2010) at the Association for Jewish Studies Conference{{cite web|title=Association for Jewish Studies 42nd Annual Conference|url=http://www.ajsnet.org/2010prog/program.pdf|publisher=Association for Jewish Studies|access-date=2 December 2013|page=78|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131215075756/http://www.ajsnet.org/2010prog/program.pdf|archive-date=15 December 2013|url-status=dead}}
• Jewish Peoplehood and Rugged Individualism: Creating a 'We-Feeling' for American Jews (2008) keynote address at the Super Sunday of Jewish Learning{{cite news|last=Sherwin|first=Mike|title=Peoplehood is vital concept for Jewish identity, says visiting scholar|url=http://www.stljewishlight.com/news/local/article_1c997d17-f755-5f7e-94a3-bebc19a90e2f.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20131215055408/http://www.stljewishlight.com/news/local/article_1c997d17-f755-5f7e-94a3-bebc19a90e2f.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 15, 2013|access-date=1 December 2013|newspaper=St. Louis Jewish Light|date=13 February 2008}}

• Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
• Reconstructionist Judaism
• Mordecai M. Kaplan

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• [http://www.rrc.edu/MeetDeborahWaxman Meet Our President Elect | Reconstructionist Rabbinical College] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131216000850/http://www.rrc.edu/MeetDeborahWaxman |date=2013-12-16}}

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