London (Sunday 18 May 2025): In a history-defining moment, member communities of Britain’s Movement for Reform Judaism and Liberal Judaism have voted to unite into one Progressive Judaism for the UK.
The decision was made at two parallel Extraordinary General Meetings (EGMs), with the number of votes in favour at each exceeding 95%.
Dr Ed Kessler MBE – a leading interfaith thinker, writer and academic – chaired the Advisory Board that has overseen the process. He hailed the decision, saying: “This is the biggest change and
Rabbi Charley Baginsky, Paul Langsford, Dr Ed Kessler MBE, Karen Newman and Rabbi Josh Levy celebrate the formation of Progressive Judaism (photo by Zoe Norfolk).
most significant development in British Judaism since the Second World War. For the first time, this country now has a single, unified Progressive Judaism – providing a voice and a space that brings together timeless Jewish tradition with the diversity and values of 21st-century Jewish life.”
The new Progressive Judaism will be the UK’s largest synagogal movement, measured by number of communities (80). It will represent 1/3 of synagogue affiliated Jews with the goal of reaching out to roughly the same percentage of non-affiliated Jews who are known to align with Progressive Jewish values.
This is the first ever known unification of two Jewish denominations and the culmination of 250 years of Progressive Jewish history (see addendum for full timeline). It is the first merger of any two religious streams since the Presbyterian and Congregational Christian groupings formed the United Reformed Church in 1972.
Rabbi Charley Baginsky, CEO of Liberal Judaism, and Rabbi Josh Levy, CEO of the Movement for Reform Judaism, have led the process and will continue the work of creating the new movement. They have spent the last two years, since the project travelling and hearing directly from Progressive Jewish communities.
Rabbi Josh Levy said: “We have heard first-hand how Progressive Jews all around the country want to take this once-in-a-generation opportunity to create something new and intentional – a Progressive Judaism that has something to say into the world and that can help more people have more fulfilling religious lives.”
Rabbi Charley Baginsky added: “We are now seeing the fruition of the next iteration of Progressive Jewish history. Through this vote, our members are both standing on the shoulders of all those who came before us and creating something long and lasting for our children and the generations who come after us.”
Progressive Judaism differs from Orthodox Judaism in several vital ways.
Progressive Judaism understands that the religion’s formative texts are not the literal word of God, but the divinely inspired work of human beings. It believes in Progressive revelation and the overriding importance of values and ethics in defining how we behave.
In practical terms, Progressive Judaism’s fundamental principle is equality. Services are egalitarian with everyone sitting together. The Progressive clergy is 50% women and 20% LGBTQI+. Progressive communities fully welcome mixed-faith families and hold dual-heritage wedding blessings. The movements campaigned for the introduction of the same-sex marriage law. In a further key difference to Orthodoxy, Jewish status can be inherited from either parent where a child is brought up as Jewish.
Liberal Judaism Chair Karen Newman said: “Our new Progressive Judaism, just like the two movements which have come together to create it, will manifest from day one its commitment to a Judaism that is non-dogmatic, inclusive and celebrates diversity in policy, prayer, and practice.”
Paul Langsford, Chair of the Movement for Reform Judaism, added: “As a unified movement, we will now be stronger, our voice will be louder and we will be able to bring even greater benefit not just to our own members, but to the whole Jewish community and wider British society.”
The new Progressive Judaism will have four key missions: to strengthen, support and connect its communities; to promote, amplify and embolden Progressive values and forms of Jewish life; to inspire and nurture the next generations of Progressive Jews; and to foster inclusion, provide resources and pave the way for those seeking to join.
At the same times as the EGMs were taking place, Reform and Liberal communities all over the country were getting together for joint ice cream picnics to celebrate both the result and the Jewish festival of Shavuot.
It will now take around six months to legally form the new Movement for Progressive Judaism, with a brand launch and celebratory fundraising dinner set to be held in November.
A Timeline of Progressive Judaism: 250 Years of Change and Progress
1775 – The Haskalah, also known as the Jewish Enlightenment, begins in Berlin and spreads across Europe – heralding a new era of Jewish thought and integration.
1810 – Progressive Judaism is born with the founding of Jacob’s Temple – the first Reform synagogue – in Seesen, Germany. Services, liturgy and rituals are made more accessible.
1817 – Two girls have a Jewish coming-of-age ceremony at the Beer Temple in Berlin. The practice spreads in Germany, France and Italy, with the term Bat Mitzvah first used in 1847.
1840 – Twenty-four families from Britain’s Sephardi and Ashkenazi congregations form the West London Synagogue of British Jews, introducing modernised practice and teaching. Further Reform communities follow in Manchester and Bradford in 1857 and 1873.
1841 – Britain’s first Reform prayer book is introduced. Forms of Prayer Volume I: Daily and Sabbath Prayers modernises and shortens the Shabbat service, with an English translation.
1851 – In America, which got its first Progressive synagogue in 1824, Congregation Beth-El of Albany introduces ‘family pews’ – the Progressive practice of everyone sitting together.
1857 – The first recorded UK use of the term Progressive Judaism (in the Jewish Chronicle).
1899 – Liberal Judaism begins to form. A service takes place at Marylebone’s Great Central Hotel in 1902, with The Liberal Jewish Synagogue founded in 1911. Building on innovations of the UK’s Reform communities, further advances are made in equality and accessibility.
1926 – The World Union for Progressive Judaism is created in London. It now serves an estimated 1.8 million members in more than 1,250 congregations across 50 countries.
1955 – The practice that Jewish status can be inherited from either parent (whether mother or father), where the child is brought up as Jewish, is introduced.
1956 – Leo Baeck College is established as Britain’s first Progressive rabbinic seminary. The College has since ordained more than 200 Liberal and Reform rabbis.
1967 – Following the 1935 ordination of the world’s first woman rabbi, Leo Baeck College begins accepting female rabbinic candidates. Britain’s first woman rabbi is ordained in 1975.
1980 – British Progressive Judaism embraces the UK’s first openly LGBTQI+ rabbi. In 1984, openly LGBTQI+ students enter the rabbinic programme at Leo Baeck College.
1992 – Progressive clergy begin to lead wedding blessings for dual heritage couples. From 2012, these take place in synagogue, as part of a full inclusion of mixed faith families.
1995 – Liberal Judaism’s Siddur Lev Chadash is the first prayer book in Europe to use gender-inclusive language for God. Words subsuming women under men are also changed.
2008 – Reform Judaism releases Seder Ha-T’fillot: Forms of Prayer – Britain’s first Siddur containing a complete transliteration (Hebrew words written in English) for Shabbat..
2013 – Already conducting blessings for LGBTQI+ couples, Progressive synagogues start to host full equal weddings after campaigning for a change in the law to be able do so.
2025 – Britain’s Reform and Liberal communities vote to unite as one Progressive Judaism for the UK – the culmination of 250 years of history, progress, innovation and change.
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