Reform Judaism (United Kingdom)
| Movement for Reform Judaism | |
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| Theology | Reform Judaism |
| Senior Rabbi | Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner |
| Life President | Sir Sigmund Sternberg |
| President | Sir Trevor Chinn |
| Associations | World Union for Progressive Judaism |
| Region | United Kingdom |
| Headquarters | Sternberg Centre, London |
| Origin | 4 January 1942 Midland Hotel, Manchester |
| Congregations | 42 |
| Members | 16,125 households |
| Official website | www |
The Movement for Reform Judaism (until 2005: Reform Synagogues of Great Britain) is one of the two World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ)-affiliated denominations in Britain. Reform is relatively traditional in comparison with its smaller counterpart, Liberal Judaism, though it does not regard Jewish law as binding. As of 2010, it was the second largest Jewish religious group in the United Kingdom, with 19.4% of synagogue-member households.
The denomination shares the basic tenets of Reform Judaism (alternatively known also as Progressive or Liberal) worldwide: a theistic, personal God; an ongoing revelation, under the influence of which all scripture was written – but not dictated by providence – that enables contemporary Jews to reach new religious insights without necessarily being committed to the conventions of the past; regarding the ethical and moral values of Judaism as its true essence, while ritual and practical observance are means to achieve spiritual elation and not an end to themselves – and therefore, rejecting the binding nature of Jewish law; a belief in the coming of a Messianic era rather than a personal Messiah, and in immortality of the soul only, instead of bodily resurrection. Prayers referring to such concepts were omitted from the liturgy, and traditional practices abolished or altered considerably.
Although the MRJ does subscribe to these views, held also by Liberal Judaism and the American Union for Reform Judaism, several factors made it more moderate and less prone to modify old forms. Its constituency was socially conservative and it attempted to appeal to potential newcomers from the Centrist Orthodox majority in British Jewry; renewed traditionalism by all WUPJ members since the 1970s also motivated the MRJ to adopt once discarded elements. Though the movement does not consider itself halakhic, it has been sometimes compared to American Conservative Judaism – the sociological functions of which as an "intermediate" movement it indeed filled, especially since the "Assembly of Masorti Synagogues" was only established in 1985 and is very small – while Liberals are more reminiscent of US Reform.
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Wikipedia