WUPJ News

During Sukkot celebration in October, the Sandra Breslauer Beit Simha Center in Minsk hosted its annual “Readings in the Sukkah” where guests took part in reading from Ecclesiastes (“Kohelet”) and prayers for peace in eight languages, as by Irina Belskia, Beit Simha’s Jewish educator. Festival participants developed the initiative to create an interfaith text for reflection to read at various memorial services after a peace prayer.

The World Union joins members of our global movement – in Germany and around the world – in expressing our horror and sadness upon hearing of the brutal attack on a synagogue in Halle, Germany. We grieve the loss of life and the terror enacted upon those who came together to pray on Yom Kippur, the holiest of days in the Jewish calendar. 

We are excited to welcome Nicki Braun to lead Netzer Olami in a newly-envisioned role for the global movement. Nicki grew up in Netzer Australia, participated in Shnat Netzer Gap Year in Israel, and took on key leadership roles. Now that she moved to Jerusalem, Nicki will play a key role in Shnat Netzer, the Progressive Jewish Gap Year program in Israel, and will spend time in communities around the world during her tenure. 

The 11th Progressive Synagogue in South Africa and the first Progressive Shul opened by a female rabbi celebrated its official opening receiving a Torah scroll donated by Rabbi Hillel Cohn of San Bernardino in California, USA.

Rabbis Malcolm Matitiani and Emma Gottlieb, from Temple Israel in Cape Town, were invited to greet the Duke & Duchess of Sussex on their visit to the Auwal Mosque in Bo-Kapp on September 24.

The Beutel Seminar for Progressive Jewish Leadership brings together Reform Jewish leaders from around the world for ten days of learning, sharing, and experiencing the vibrancy of our movement in Israel.

Rabbi David Saperstein, the long-time Director of the Reform Movement’s acclaimed Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (RAC), who served as U.S. Ambassador for International Religious Freedom during the Obama Administration, will serve as President of the World Union in 2019-2020.  

We’re inviting international delegates of the World Union to join thousands of Reform Jews at the URJ Biennial in Chicago this December. Come and share stories of our members and communities advancing our movement around the world. And attend one of the many World Union panel discussions and events that we’re planning! Details below.

World Union representatives attended the 68th United Nations Civil Society Conference in Salt Lake City, UT. The aim of the conference was to bring Civil Society together around UN Sustainable Development Goal No. 11, “Building Inclusive and Sustainable Cities and Communities”.

Jerusalem-born Mika Arad, a descendant of the Koschers – one of three Jewish families who settled in Ivye in 1600 – held her Bat Mitzvah ceremony in the Museum of National Cultures, in the gallery on the history and traditions of the Jewish people.