brazil – World Union for Progressive Judaism

[BRAZIL] Welcome, Beth El Congregation!

We are very pleased to welcome the Beth El Congregation – one of the oldest Congregations in Latin America – to the World Union family.

[LATIN AMERICA] Meet the New Students of the IberoAmerican Institute for Reform Rabbinical Education (IIFRR)

In 2017, the Union del Judaismo Reformista AmLat (UJR) (formerly WUPJ-LA), founded the Institute in partnership with Fundación Judaica and Centro de Espiritualidad Judía Mishkan, to train educators, community leaders and rabbis, which will allow for growth and continuity in the region. Meet the newest students to join the program.

[BRAZIL] Tamar Tikkun Olam Seminar Revisits Rio Doce Community and Extends its Impact for the Third Year in a Row

“Glad you’re here. We thought the world had forgotten us,” said Cacique José Barcelos, from the Botocudos tribe, in Vila do Areal, Espírito Santo. Cacique’s village was others destroyed in the environmental disaster which hit the entire Rio Doce in 2015. He tells the group of young adults who have come to restore and repair […]

Scenes of participants connecting at the Kotel during the Beutel Leadership 2018

Reflections on Impact: The Beutel Leadership Seminar in Jerusalem, February 2018

In February, there were 10 intense days of activities, with hands-on classes on the streets of Israel. The 18 participants, representing 13 different countries (Brazil, Australia, Zimbabwe, Belgium, Spain, the United States, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Canada, England and Germany) also had intense debates about topics proposed by the Beutel Seminar for Jewish Reform […]

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.

Second Tikkun Olam Seminar in Brazil Continues its Impact

“The month of July 2017 marked 20 months of the day when the mud from Samarco reached the ocean. Twenty months of mud and struggle. Today we get together to remember, we get together to feel, we get together to pray, we get together to act for the regeneration of the Rio Doce river. We […]