Dr Ed Kessler MBE chaired the Advisory Board that oversaw the process of creating the Movement for Progressive Judaism, a merger of Reform and Liberal Judaism. This is the most important development in British Judaism since the end of WWII.
On 18 May 2025, 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 the 75% threshold required for unification. For the first time, the UK now has a single, unified Progressive Judaism – providing a voice and a space that brings together 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.
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Progressive Judaism differs from Orthodox Judaism in several ways. It 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.
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