World Union for Progressive Judaism
 |
|
| Abbreviation | WUPJ |
|---|---|
| Formation | 10 July 1926 |
| Founder | Claude Montefiore |
| Headquarters | Mercaz Shimshon, Eliyahu Shama 6, Jerusalem |
|
Membership
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~1.8 million |
|
President
|
Daniel H. Freelander |
|
Chair
|
Carole Sterling |
| Affiliations | URJ, JRF etc. |
|
Budget (2014)
|
~5,000,000$ |
The World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) is the international umbrella organization for the various branches of Reform, Liberal and Progressive Judaism, as well as the separate Reconstructionist Judaism. The WUPJ is based in 40 countries with 1,275 affiliated synagogues, of which 1,170 are Reform, Progressive or Liberal and 105 Reconstructionist. It claims to represent a total of some 1.8 million people, both registered constituents and non-member identifiers. The WUPJ states that it aims are to create common ground between its constituents and to promote Progressive Judaism in places where individuals and groups are seeking authentic, yet modern ways of expressing themselves as Jews. It seeks to preserve Jewish integrity wherever Jews live, to encourage integration without assimilation, to deal with modernity while preserving the Jewish experience and to strive for equal rights and social justice.
The WUPJ was established in London in 1926 as the Union of all Progressive (also Liberal or Reform) movements. It moved its headquarters to New York in 1959 and to Jerusalem in 1973. In 1990, the Reconstructionists – who espouse a philosophy different from that of the former – joined the WUPJ under an observer status, being the first and only non-Reform member. The WUPJ has regional offices in London, Moscow and New York City.
As of September 2014 the President of the WUPJ is Rabbi Daniel H. Freelander, and the Chair is Carole Sterling. Past presidents included Claude Montefiore (1926-1938)), Rabbi Leo Baeck (1938-1956), Lily Montagu (1955–1959), and Rabbi Solomon Freehof (1959-1964).
Reform Judaism began in Germany, led by Rabbi Abraham Geiger. It stagnated considerably after the 1840s. In 1898, German Liberal rabbis organized the Union of Liberal Rabbis in Germany under Heinemann Vogelstein. In 1908 the laity formed the Union for Liberal Judaism in Germany. At its height, it had some 10,000 members and half the rabbis in the country. The ULJ was a founding member of the World Union in 1926. After the destruction of the Holocaust, Germany's Jews, mostly refugees of foreign descent, largely favoured Orthodoxy. Liberal Judaism managed to gain inroads slowly, and first prayer groups appeared in 1995. The Union of Progressive Jews was founded in 1997.
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