|
Februar 1997 - - Adar 1/Adar 2 5757 - - February
1996
The Union of Progressive Jews
in Germany, Austria and Switzerland is founded
Out of the two-year old ‘Group for Reform and Con-servative
Communities and Clubs’, where Beth Shalom had refrained from membership due to
unclear financial and organizational goals, ‘The Union of Progressive Jews in
Germany, Austria and Switzerland’ has been newly constituted. The Union includes only
Communities and Religious Groups with the following common goals:
- to uphold the fundamental teachings of Judaism and to foster the
understanding and teaching of the Jewish tradition in harmony with the modern world in
which we live;
- to foster the formation and cooperation of other pro-gressive Jewish
communities in the German-speaking community;
- to actively encourage interest in progressive Judaism to the
non-religious Jewish community;
- to represent members in ‘The World Union for Pro-gressive
Judaism’ and to foster cooperation with the non-Orthodox Jewish World Community.
The liberal Jewish communities and groups in Kassel, Frankfurt,
(Kehillah Chadascha), in Heidelberg (Derech Chadascha), Köln (Gesher LaMassoret), Vienna
(Or Chadasch), as well as the conservative-oriented ‘Einheitsgemeinde’ in
Göttingen that all belonged to the pre-existing Group (Dachverband) will be members in
the newly-formed Union of Progressive Jews.
New members of the Union will be the ‘Israelitische
Kultusgemeinde Bamberg’, the New Jewish community of Hannover and Beth Shalom,
Munich. The Board of Beth Shalom will formally vote on membership in February.
World Union Shabbat Service worldwide
World Union member congregations all over the world will pay tribute
to each other in a solidarity service on Friday evening March 7. The service will be
highlighted by Beth Shalom’s multicultural membership. The sermon will be delivered
by member Dr. Walter Homolka. During this weekend we welcome Mrs. Frances Sacker, from the
Governing body of the Union of Liberal and Progressive Synogogues in Great Britain, who is
also in charge of supervising the World Union conference in Munich in November 1997.
|
