At the end of June, Progressive Jews from across the world will gather in London for Darkeinu, marking 100 years of the World Union for Progressive Judaism.
Anniversaries often invite us to look back. But they also ask us to understand how we arrived here, and what it means for what comes next.
The World Union for Progressive Judaism was founded in London in 1926, at a moment of both upheaval and possibility for Jewish life. In the aftermath of the First World War, with Jewish communities reshaped across Europe and new centres of Jewish life emerging, a small group of leaders asked a bold question: could there be a global movement that held together a Judaism committed to tradition and one open to modernity?
While Progressive Judaism had existed since the early nineteenth century, this marked the beginning of something new: a consciously global movement.
More than 100 participants travelled from abroad to be part of that founding moment. From the outset, this was not simply a British initiative, but an international collaboration shaped by shared vision and collective responsibility.
From those beginnings, the World Union grew steadily, establishing communities, supporting rabbis and building networks across continents. It played a critical role in sustaining and rebuilding Progressive Jewish life in Europe after the devastation of the Second World War, while also nurturing growth in North America, Latin America, Israel and beyond.
Today, Progressive Judaism is the largest synagogue movement in the Jewish world. Its reach is vast, but its coherence comes from shared principles: equality in religious life, openness to change, and a commitment to ensuring that Jewish tradition remains a living, evolving force. And here in the UK, something significant has shifted.
At the start of this year, Liberal and Reform Judaism came together to form the Movement for Progressive Judaism. This was not simply an organisational merger. It was a moment of clarity about who we are and where we are going. It signalled a belief that Progressive Judaism is not a marginal voice, but a central and confident expression of Jewish life in this country.
There is a quiet symmetry in this moment. A century after helping to found a global Progressive movement, the UK community has renewed its own foundations. Not by flattening difference, but by recognising shared purpose. Not by looking back, but by stepping forward together.
The Progressive voice has always brought something distinctive to Anglo Jewry, a commitment to equality, to the full inclusion of women and LGBTQ Jews, and to a Judaism that engages openly with the world around it. In a time when questions of identity and belonging are being tested across society, that voice is not simply relevant, it is necessary.
The timing of Darkeinu sharpens this even further.
It comes just after Hineinu, the first national gathering of the Movement for Progressive Judaism. There we will see communities meeting across former boundaries, leaders sharing ideas with new openness, and a growing sense that this is not just a merger, but a movement in the fullest sense.
The relationship between the Movement for Progressive Judaism and the World Union has always been strong. But it feels newly significant now. The UK is not only contributing to a global conversation, it is helping to shape it, just as it did a century ago.
If the first century of Progressive Judaism was about proving that a Judaism rooted in equality, openness and change could thrive, the next century will ask how that vision can deepen in a far more complex world.
That will require confidence, creativity and a continued commitment to building communities that reflect both our values and our ambitions.
Standing at this moment, on the threshold of Hineinu and Darkeinu, with a newly unified Progressive movement in the UK and a global community marking 100 years, there is real reason for optimism.
A century ago, a small group of leaders in London imagined a different kind of Jewish future.
Today, we are living it, and responsible for what comes next.
For information and to book a place at Darkeinu, click here
For information and to book a place at Hineinu, click here
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