WUPJ News

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.

Lisa Edwards’ drive to break through barriers lead her through a successful career as a pioneering woman and openly gay rabbi for the last 25 years. On the eve of her retirement as senior rabbi of the world’s first primarily LGBT congregation, Beth Chayim Chadashim in Los Angeles, Edwards spoke with the World Union about her life, career and issues facing the Progressive Jewish world.

Applications for cohort 6 of the URJ Klal Yisrael fellowship, run in partnership with the World Union and the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ), are open. 

It is with sadness that World Union shares the news of the passing of Rabbi Charles Wallach in the United Kingdom on Friday, the 23rd.