Welcoming & Raising Children

We greet each child with affection and joy. Every baby comes to us full of promise and potential. As parents, we are privileged to welcome them into our families, our communities, and the embrace of the Jewish people. Raising children to adulthood, we encounter many milestones along the way. Children are weaned, lose their teeth, and start school. Some get their driver’s licenses and eventually leave home for good. Here are rituals for welcoming children and for celebrating the milestones on their paths to adulthood.

Latest Rituals

Description of the first haircut in Jewish tradition

A beautiful song, a lullaby, about fully accepting our children and offering them complete freedom to become themselves

A ceremony to celebrate the weaning of a child

A beautiful weaning ceremony celebrated at Havdalah for twins and their mom

A ceremony marked by sweet scents

A prayer for a mother to say before nursing her child

Celebrated when a child is 30 days old, this traditional ceremony is reimagined for boys and girls

A feminist mom discusses circumcision

A tekhine, traditional prayer, to be said by a new mother before the bris of her son

Traditional Brit Milah with added readings and prayers

The Reconstructionist Network

Serving as central organization of the Reconstructionist movement

Training the next generation of groundbreaking rabbis

Modeling respectful conversations on pressing Jewish issues

Curating original, Jewish rituals, and convening Jewish creatives

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The Reconstructionist Network