The World Union for Progressive Judaism (Our Newsletter)
"MARMUR DEFINES WORLD UNION’S VERY ESSENCE AT BIENNIAL"
- MARMUR DEFINES WORLD UNION’S VERY ESSENCE AT BIENNIAL
In a speech at the recent Union of Reform Judaism biennial in Toronto, Rabbi Dow Marmur, a former World Union executive director and rabbi emeritus of the city’s Holy Blossom Temple, called the World Union and its work “a vindication of faith and an endorsement of our way of expressing it.”
“It’s reasonable to assume that Reform Jews in North America don’t need the World Union,” he said in insightful and inspiring remarks delivered at the organization’s Celebratory Luncheon on Thursday at the biennial. “Nevertheless, their involvement in it, and support for it, are crucial. Thanks to that support, Jews in remote places in the world can identify as Jews.”
“Without the World Union, with the exception of Britain and perhaps France, there would be no Progressive, Liberal, Reform… Judaism in Europe today,” he continued, adding that in the former Soviet Union, “much of the revival of Jewish life is due to the spectacular achievements of our movement.” Turning to Israel, he said that Reform Judaism had become” something of a model of how to be Jewish in the Jewish state…. We must not let them down and thus let ourselves down by jeopardizing the Jewishness of Israel. The World Union, through its affiliate, the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism, is our vehicle.”
To read the full text of Marmur’s speech, click here.
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