A PROPOSAL for an Israeli public holiday to celebrate Diaspora Jewry, the demographics of Progressive Judaism and a preview of a High Holy Days machzor were just three highlights when more than 130 delegates from Progressive communities across Australia, New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region converged on Perth for the November 17-20 Union for Progressive Judaism (UPJ) biennial conference.
UPJ scholar-in-residence Dr Ron Wolfson, a US specialist in making synagogues welcoming, urged communities to make themselves “not about programs but relationships”.
Relating the sobering anecdote of a congregant in Dallas, who for years “came to everything but met no-one”, Wolfson urged synagogues to be warm and welcoming. In the age of social media, Jews “are hungry for face-to-face relationships in a sacred community of relationships”.
World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) president Rabbi Danny Freelander described his role during the Kotel crisis this month, when he and others brought Sefer Torahs to female worshippers besieged by protesters and surrounded by security forces at the Western Wall.
Read the full article by Peter Kohn at the Australian Jewish News.