Liberals get rise in converts

Liberal Judaism has announced a record number of conversions, with 85 recruits accepted in 2011.

Candidates have to experience a full Jewish calendar year and undergo at least six months' instruction before applying for admission.

In practice, most take 15 months or more before they appear before the Liberal Beit Din - as its rabbinic board was renamed last year.

Liberal chief executive R

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Liberal leader advocates 'Federation' with Reform

Liberal Judaism chair Lucian Hudson has called for a closer alliance with the Reform movement, suggesting they combine forces in a joint federation.

Writing in the latest issue of the Liberal newsletter, LJ Today, Mr Hudson said he wanted to go beyond the old question of "merger" - the subject of failed talks between the movements.

Instead, they should "focus on what it would take to create

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Eastbourne gets rabbi

The Eastbourne Progressive Jewish Congregation (Beit Chaverim) is to be served by a part-time minister - Rabbi Anna Gerrard from the Liberal Judaism head office team.

Rabbi Gerrard will officiate at the erev Shabbat services on the fourth Friday of every month and will also offer pastoral support to congregants.

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Liberal buys right-wing Betar

Betar Jerusalem, notorious for its right-wing football fans, has been bought by left-leaning US businessman Dan Adler, together with fellow investor Adam Levin.

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Progressives' genuine progress

This year marks the centenary of the founding of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue. The LJS was established by - and owed its survival beyond a difficult birth to - a partnership between the gentleman scholar, Claude Goldsmid Montefiore, and the woman who wanted desperately to be his wife (but whose advances he rebuffed), Lily Montagu.

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Party for the 100-year-old Liberal synagogue

Britain's oldest Liberal synagogue celebrated its centenary with a musical Shabbat service featuring participants from every decade of its existence.

Around 900 worshippers gathered at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, St John's Wood, on Saturday - almost 100 years to the day that its founders met for the first time in a converted chapel on February 4, 1911.

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Liberals take stand

A group of women from the Liberal Jewish Community in Manchester are fighting for Jerusalem's Women of the Wall and are taking a stand for their own community's right to exist.

Manchester's newly inaugurated Liberal Jewish Community, the first such in the North West, is holding a Friday night service tonight which will protest against an Israeli ban on women being able to sing and read the Torah at Jerusalem's Western Wall.

The service will take place at Cross Street Chapel in central Manchester.

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Give terminally-ill right to die, says rabbi

People with terminal illnesses should be helped to die if they do not want to go on living, according to the chief executive of Liberal Judaism.

Rabbi Danny Rich made the case when he gave evidence last week to the independent Commission on Assisted Dying, chaired by the former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer.

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Liberal rabbi extends northern role

Manchester's first Liberal rabbi has officially begun ministering to the only Liberal synagogue in the north of England.

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Liberals in reshuffle

Rabbi Danny Rich has been awarded a new five year contract as the chief executive of Liberal Judaism.

Leaders of the movement have also reorganised the management team at the Montagu Centre, its central London HQ, in order to allow Rabbi Rich - who took office in 2005 - more time for writing and public speaking.

Lucian Hudson, Liberal Judaism chairman, said: "Danny Rich is an exceptional leader who is held in high regard and with much affection. We are delighted to renew his contract."

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Liberal chief hits out at religious 'anit-democracy'

Liberal Judaism chief executive Rabbi Danny Rich condemned religious coercion and sectarianism in his address to the movement's biggest biennial conference, held in Gloucestershire.

Addressing an audience of over 300, he said that some religious followers have "declared in both word - and frequently more tragically in deed - that democracy is in opposition to the values and practices of religious faith."

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Liberal Judaism's first Israel and diaspora officer

As part of Liberal Judaism's commitment to "a progressive and democratic Israel", Daniel Needlestone has been appointed its first Israel and diaspora officer.

He will work closely with full-time shlicha Dana Friedman and the Liberal Judaism chairman and chief executive, Lucian Hudson and Rabbi Danny Rich, who were both recently in Israel to strengthen links with the movement's partners.

A graduate of UJIA's Adam Science leadership programme, Mr Needlestone is co-chair of Pro-Zion and founder and chair of the UK Jewish Teachers Association.

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