World Union for Progressive Judaism

Category Archives: Latin America

Scene from Netzer Day Camp, Summer 2018

[GLOBAL] 2018 Summer Camp Roundup

A lifetime of Jewish connections in one summer! The WUPJ 2018 Youth Camping Report highlights the impact of our international camping movement throughout the world, featuring statistics and locations of summer camps, counselors in key countries around the world!

Sowing the Seeds of Native Rabbinic Leadership

In August 2017, the World Union and its partner region in Latin America, Union for Reform Judaism (URJ-AmLat), launched the Iberoamerican Institute for Reform Rabbinical Education in Buenos Aires to recruit and train rabbis and educators for Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking Reform congregations. As the first school of its kind in the region, the Iberoamerican Institute lays vital groundwork for the growth of Reform Judaism across Latin America.

Netzer 2017 youth activities connecting to Reform Judaism, peoplehood and Israel

2017 Netzer Year in Review

2017 was a significant for Netzer Olami. As a movement that’s been actively engaging youth in Reform Judaism and Zionism for more than thirty years, our snifim are reporting growth and vibrancy in responding to the changes taking place across the Jewish world. Read our annual review here.

The Law of Return – is it time for the Return of the Law?

Issues facing the Law of Return almost 70 years after its enactment By Nicole Maor The Law of Return is one the shortest laws in Israel’s legislature – just over one page long.  It exemplifies the Zionist dream and the cornerstone of Israel’s right to exist. Its original version was simple: All Jews are eligible […]

In Costa Rica, Bnei Israel's First Synagogue and the Cow who sat on the its doorstep regularly

When Dreams Become Reality: Comunidad B’nei Israel Costa Rica Celebrates 30 Years

In 1984, two kindergarteners from Country Day School in San Jose, Costa Rica (Saul Herckis and Alberto Bonilla) discovered they were Jewish. Their parents, who did not belong to the Centro Israelita, the only synagogue in the country at that time, because they were not Orthodox in their believes or practices, began to meet weekly to celebrate Shabbat. They were soon joined by other families who sought communal prayer and celebration in a more spiritual, and less rigorous, Jewish framework. 

And in those first gatherings, Communidad B’nei Israel of Costa Rica was born.

Tikkun Olam Seminar participant and volunteer hands out dental care kits to children in the village near the Rio Doce river in Brazil

Tamar Tikkun Olam Seminar Revisits Rio Doce River to Continue Working For the Community

The Areal Community, in the district of Linhares in the state of Espirito Santo, Brazil, was one of the communities affected by the mineral residues from the rupture of the dam of the Samarco mining company in 2015. Located in the mouth of the Rio Doce river, the community, made up of 250 indigenous inhabitants, was deprived of the only leisure activity that the population had: swimming in the river and lakes. The World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) together with the Unidos Pela Vida (UPV) (United for Life) Institute visited the region in December 2016 during the 1st Tamar Tikkun Olam Seminar. Now, participants returned with additional resources to build a soccer field and more for the community and its children.

Reading from an open Torah scroll

Community Leadership and the Common Good | Parashat Bamidbar

There are periods in our lives in which we are neither here nor there. When we leave home, our land or our community and take Avraham Avinu as our example of Lech Lecha, moving toward a place we do not know, everything is seem to be difficult. We were accustomed to the people, to our home, to the streets and avenues of our city, and above all we knew how to deal with known troubles, for we knew o ground and how to keep walking there.