Liberal Judaism (United Kingdom)
| Liberal Judaism | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Theology | Reform Judaism |
| Chief Executive | Rabbi Danny Rich |
| Chairman | Simon Benscher |
| Rabbinic Chairs | Alexandra Wright, Richard Jacobi |
| Associations | World Union for Progressive Judaism |
| Region | United Kingdom |
| Headquarters | The Montagu Centre, 21 Maple Street, London |
| Founder | Claude Montefiore, Lily Montagu |
| Origin | 16 February 1902 35 Porchester Terrace, London |
| Congregations | 39 |
| Members | 7,197 households (2010) |
| Official website | www |
Liberal Judaism (until 2002: Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues) is one of the two WUPJ-affiliated denominations in the United Kingdom. It is smaller and more radical in comparison with the other one, the Movement for Reform Judaism. As of 2010 it was the fourth largest Jewish religious group in Britain, with 8.7% of synagogue-member households.
The beliefs of Liberal Judaism are outlined in The Affirmations of Liberal Judaism, authored in 1992 by Rabbi John D. Rayner, the most prominent of the movement's later theologians. Founder Claude Montefiore shared the ideals of worldwide Reform Judaism, also known as "Progressive" or "Liberal". So did Rayner, who affirmed a personal God; an ongoing (or "progressive") revelation allowing all to form their own views of religiosity, mandating a critical understanding of sacred texts and an evolving nature of Judaism across the ages; separation between the ethical and ritual aspects of Judaism, with the latter serving as an instrumental capacity of the former and having no intrinsic value; personal autonomy for the individual; a belief in a messianic era of harmony instead of a personal messiah; and rejection of bodily resurrection of the dead in favour of, at most (though not necessarily), the immortality of the soul. The centrality of the Prophets' moral teachings was also stressed. As in the other branches of worldwide Reform, these convictions laid little emphasis on practical observance and regarded the mechanisms of Jewish Law as basically non-binding.
British Liberal Judaism was defined by the radical purism of its founding father, Montefiore, who was exceptional even among his peers worldwide in his desire to universalise and spiritualise Judaism, stripping it bare from whatever he considered overly particularist or ceremonial. Liberal liturgy in the early 20th century was drastically abridged and more than half of it was in English. Bareheaded men and women sat together, and ritual or practical observance were explicitly quite ignored (nonexistent levels of adherence to traditional forms were the norm in the Orthodox United Synagogue as well, but not publicly). The Election of Israel was reinterpreted in universalist terms, toning down the separateness of Jews and stressing their mission to spread the Word of God among the nations. Prayers for the restoration of the sacrificial cult in Jerusalem by the Messiah, mentions of bodily resurrection, angels, hostility toward gentiles and overt Jewish particularism were excised or at least greatly reformulated.
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