www.reformjudaism.org.uk

Music

Narrator: Members of the Movement, rabbis and the leadership team continue to represent our needs to our community and the Jewish community to the wider world.

Stephen Moss: Tony Bayfield's done an amazing job over a long period of time in bringing the Reform Movement into the heart of the community and he's forged the way for there to be a multiplicity of voices representing the Reform Movement.

Music and applause

Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner: You need personality to deliver the policy...

Rabbi Jonathan Romain: and you end up with a very fragmented and divisive society precisely at a time when we should be doing the opposite.

Jonathan Dimbleby: We are at the Wimbledon and District Synagogue and in the Movement for Reform Judaism.

Stephen Moss: the Reform Movement is at the very centre of the British Jewish community and Jewish life in this country.

Matthew Gould: Well I grew up in the Reform Movement but the last few years have been more involved with the Reform Movement than ever before because my wife's converted. It's been a wonderful experience; we know we are on our way to Israel, we know that our involvement with West London and with the Movement has been the most marvellous preparation and given us a real grounding in Judaism and Jewish values.

I'm immensely proud as a member of the Reform Movement to be going to represent my country.

Narrator: Support from the Reform Movement has helped establish student outreach across the country.

Sheldon Mordsley: We're Jeneration; it's a new Jewish organisation for students and young adults.

Narrator: With campus activities, leadership tours and social action events, Jeneration is delivering on its promise to attract, energise and revitalise Jewish youth.

Michal Isch-Horowicz: For me this has been a really formative trip. We're leaving with a real feeling generally of optimism and of activism, wanting to do something, feeling like we can support each other in working to do that.

Simon Spier: Wow, this is going to be surreal! A lot to take in.

Singing and cheering

Narrator: Jeneration has continued to forge new paths, helping to support people on their particular Jewish journey.

Zahavit Shalev: The partner of the Jewish person is often really intrigued and interested and up for exploring Judaism and so what you might start with is somebody who, who didn't think that having a Jewish partner was very important to them, who socialised primarily with non-Jews and then wound up with a non-Jewish partner and then says 'actually, on consideration, we're both really interested in Judaism and we kind of want to know more about our heritage'. You kind of get two where previously you had none.

Dinner conversation:

I'd always thought well, if I'm not going to marry a Jew then maybe I  don't have a right to go to these sorts of things anymore. It was just a really nice message that you can still be Jewish and go to shul and your partner will be welcome and if it wasn't for that I'm sure I would be going to shul a lot less.

Zahavit Shalev: The message is if you want to identify or do any Jewish stuff then the door's open to you and you can do it on your terms and there are other people who are doing the same thing.

Kiddush being recited

Music

The Movement's vision has lead to the establishment of the country's first Jewish cross-communal secondary school.

Jeremy Stowe-Linder: 27th August is handover. So they've got ten days. Well it's incredible, if you think that last week none of this was paved.

JCoSS is a school that reflects the plurality of the Anglo Jewish community.

Rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand: This school is nothing short of transformative for British Jewry.

Jeremy Stowe-Linder: The Reform Movement has been crucial in the development of JCoSS and the support from the Reform community, not just within the community but in lobbying local and national government to make the school a reality has been crucial, not least the support of Rabbi Tony Bayfield.

Narrator: Thanks to your support, the Movement has reached over a thousand young people.

RSY-Netzer programme participants: This has been my first year on camp and it's actually been unbelievable.

It is a testament to how good RSY is that this is my tenth year and I just keep on coming back every summer.

Narrator: Through winter and summer camps, leadership training, Israel Tour and the Shnat gap year programme, RSY-Netzer has been changing the lives of Jewish young people.

RSY-Netzer programme participants: If I hadn't had been on Tour I wouldn't have the confidence I do today.

Even when you're not on camp, it's, it's, you still feel part of something really special.

Alma Smith: I particularly find it exciting watching seventeen and eighteen year old leaders run a camp for a hundred fifteen year olds. I think I'm a better person for having been in RSY-Netzer.

Rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand: I had a Leo Baeck College board meeting last night and I just ducked out of an Assembly of Rabbis meeting this morning. I don't know what it is that you've been doing but you got the rabbis buzzing. This Shabbat is Shabbat Chazon. Chazon is 'vision' and I can't think of a better word to describe what it is that you're about and what it is what we're about than chazon: vision.

Rabbi Dr. Tony Bayfield: Ten years ago, given the position of the Reform Movement on the margins of the community, I really wasn't sure that this community had a future. Now, all I have to do is to look at the response to our day schools, our youth movement, the Jeneration initiative, with Shoshana to take us on the next stage. I think the sky's the limit.

Narrator: Your involvement allows us to continue this essential work. So thank you for your support.

Music

Thank you!

Stephen Moss: Thank you for your support.

Thank you.

Rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand: You are the Reform Movement. Everything we do is because of you, for you, we couldn't do it without you. Thank you.

Thank you for your support.

Singing

I, I think our community in Britain is on the verge of  collapse. Unless you've got young people who want to be engaged and have a Jewish identity then the Jewish community has no future.

Music

I think for me this has been a really formative trip.

They felt so alone, they felt so isolated, the work  they were doing on their campuses. For them to meet  lots of other young people here in the US and to know, actually there are so many young people who really live and breathe the values of progressive Judaism. They went to egalitarian services here. They went to start-up, innovative organisations that are really doing social action within a progressive Jewish environment.

My job as executive director is to run the entire organisation.

I'm Paula Winnig; I'm the Executive Director of Footsteps.

I'm a, Orthodox rabbi.

I'm a third year rabbinical student.

They were inspired to take that back to the UK.

We're leaving with a real feeling generally of optimism and of, and of activism, wanting to do something, a feeling like we can support each other in wanting to do that so... that's pretty great!

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Guys if you are all ready I have one thing to say and that is people put your bags over your shoulders 'cause we're on the move!

Music

Shvil Israel is where you like, you and a whole group of people from Shnat, hike from one end of Israel to the other. You see everything and it's amazing.

Music

Apparently there's a bet going on, I was gonna give up after two weeks but I'm still here, so yeah week three but erm, I learnt that I have to tone my legs in and then I can do what, pretty much whatever I want to do.

Music

There are so many different things happening here. I've been to Chevron, I've, I've met the Jewish settlers and  um, Arabic Muslims. I've had dinner with Chasidim. I've had chats with religious Christians and I've been pushed to do things myself and like take initiative to do things myself and erm, like I'm gonna take that back to England like I'm gonna actively work and try and make, a, you know, the world a better place.

One of the core reasons why we spend so much of our time and energy making sure that Shnat can happen is because Israel is so central to our Jewish identity and we cannot conceive of having educated, progressive Jews who haven't had some sort of deep engagement with Israel.

So I think one of the moments that epitomised my Shnat was er, Yom Kip, Yom Kippur. Huge crossroads that's usually packed with cars was completely empty and there are about, it started with about 15 of us. We just sat in the middle of the road, this normally absolutely packed road, just we sat in the middle and started singing, singing Jewish songs, singing erm, songs we learnt from RSY and eventually just people kept on joining and in the end there are about over 30 of us er, I really felt it was such a kind of spiritual moment; it was really meaningful.

We can go to an Orthodox minyan or a Renewal minyan or a Liberal minyan or a completely hippie spiritual service, we can do anything and we could grow from it and I don't think any other, programme really offers that within a supportive religious framework.

We want to show you Israel, you know with all its warts, with all its problems, have you really get out there, volunteer, engage, walk the country so you love it - and you love it despite  all the problems that it has.

What we know is those who go through Netzer and go through Shnat, are, amongst them are the future leaders of the Reform, Progressive community and the future rabbis.

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Singing

End the Shemah with 'Adonai Eloheichem Emet': Tefillah workshop guidelines page four.

Laughter

I'm doing my first year of rabbinic training. I'm a Leo Baeck College student and next year I'll return to Finchley for four more years of study so in my first 
year I'm here making sure that my Hebrew is strong so that I can erm access the texts of our tradition.

I worked my way through RSY, it was really my Jewish community erm, growing up. I spent a year in Israel when I was eighteen before I went to university. A lot of the experiences were so meaningful that it seems like a great privilege to for the rest of my life be involved in, in creating and being part of those experiences.

Israel still offers amazing possibilities for what it means to be a modern Jew. You sometimes feel like you are in a minority being Jewish and modern 
in England but being in Israel reminds me that, that we have allies that we're part of  a Jewish people that is living today, conscious of its Jewish identity and trying to use our traditions to live meaningfully. I think it is unique in the Reform Movement that young people's voices are heard, that they become part of the conversation and that seems a very powerful and almost unique thing in my life that you have within the Reform Movement the youth showing a lead.

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Music

The aim for Jewish education in Akiva is openness, egalitarianism, pluralist values, creativeness in our Jewish education.

Is keeping healthy a Jewish idea?

Today there's the Year Six Beit Midrash Day. It's an opportunity for Progressive schools to mix together, the year six children and have an informal Jewish education day.

You're creating a web page. Now as you know a web page can have a movie, it can have radio, it can have bits of text, so all of those things you can put on your web page.

Singing

Our children are used to very secure, Progressive environments and we are aware also that they are going to secondary schools where they may have to be firmer in their own identity compared to people with other identities in the Jewish community and erm, giving them positive experiences to take with them.

Singing

Hopefully, we'll look back on ten years time and say that we actually set the seeds for what Jeneration would become.

Singing

We have, like the world at our feet.

Singing

I don't feel like I'm do.. wanting to do something that's so revolutionary that it's impossible, like, evidently it is possible, erm, it's happened here.

We're there to support. We're there to facilitate. We're there to enable you to deepen your sense of Jewish identity and find meaning and purpose in it.

I do feel quite strongly that this building will change the congregation very much for the better. By providing facilities for different functions and for the many different sorts of activity will attract others to come and join us.

At the same time as there being the regular Reform service here in this part of the building, there could be any number of services going on in the other part of the building. There is no sense that there has to be one kind of Judaism celebrated at Menorah because we represent the diversity of the modern Jew.

The new Siddur is a complete revolution. For the first time in the history of Jewish liturgy we have not made rigid decisions on behalf of people as to what they have to pray and what they don't have to pray, we have provided them with choice.

Well when we started the idea was revise the language, make it more gender inclusive, but once you start doing that you begin to realise that the Movement has changed in the last 30 years. There are now chavurah groups working, so the book has to flexible to cover a whole range of different kinds of spiritual needs.

This was a book that took 8 years.

Yes.

And you consulted with communities and you consulted with all of the stakeholders and it developed over time which is very much what Reform Judaism is about as well. It's a process, it's an evolving Movement, that takes into account people's feelings, people's imaginations, people's journeys and it evolves over time.

I think one of the exciting things for me is to be at the centre of an organisation that is not a moribund institution sitting in a building in North London but a very very active organisation that's charged with reaching out to individuals.

We're here, I was in Birmingham yesterday, I'm in Leeds today and this afternoon we're going to go visiting various Halls of Residence and we're going to be giving out our student bags, our Freshers' packs and our all new Student Guide. We're really going to try and raise the profile of Jeneration in Leeds.

We're Jeneration, it's a new Jewish organisation for students and young adults.

The people that we're looking for are the unaffiliated, the people that are disillusioned, the people that are disenfranchised, the people that don't really have any involvement with their communities or with the Jewish community as a whole.

Sorry to disturb you are there any Jewish students living here?

Hi, are there any Jewish students in this flat? We're from Jeneration which is a which is a new organisation for Jewish students.

And really we just wanted to say "hi" and come and meet you.

Any questions I'm always around. Cheers, have a good one boys.

It's been a really fantastic day. All in all I think it's a big thumbs up to Leeds, onwards and upwards to Manchester.

My background is Orthodox, in fact I came from an extremely Orthodox household. Looking back on those years I can't believe that I sat in the ladies gallery, under my hat, while my three sons were Bar Mitzvah and had absolutely nothing to do with it. Obviously except seeing to the catering.

I got divorced and there was no way I was going to stay at a shul like that. Menorah has enhanced, not only my spiritual life, but my cultural and social life as well.

Much to my delight I got an article for Shofar from a new member and she is going to help me write the copy for the supplement in the local Jewish paper.

Well depending on how much space we get but we want history of the shul, and why we went Reform.

I was a little bit tired of the all or nothing approach of the Orthodox synagogue that we had been to and I needed something to meet me on whatever level that I wanted to be met at. And I think that Menorah has got that sort of flexibility that it doesn't matter if you can't do absolutely everything but if you want to practice your faith in any way then that's OK by them. It's a terrifically accepting environment.

We have twins with autism and we wanted to help them understand a little bit about their culture. The difficulty is that they're unable to go to religious schools at the moment and so we wanted a flexible environment where they could learn something of their background but you'd like it to be accessible for them. And I think that's what Reform Judaism does particularly well really.

We've just been to a Rosh Hashanah family service and it's nothing like I've ever seen before. The guitars are out and the plastic shofars were out and they gave them apples and honey and sang songs. And it's OK to have them at a children's service in the Orthodox shul but it was really nice to be able to celebrate as a family together.

I think it was something that was in the back of our minds, even when we got married, it's just that it wasn't so much of a concern until we had children. Well we're bringing up the family as Jewish so I felt it was time to basically formalise Jewishness and so make it official.

We're at the Beit Din, nervous and excited. You know it's been a long time to get to this point so you know I'm really excited that it's now come that point but obviously there is also a bit of nerves because it's a big step in our lives.

Hopefully it will be OK.

We've had another baby, a boy, the first boy, we had Brit Milah for him which was quite an experience and very special, special time.

We feel we really are a Jewish family, all of us, it's not like I am and they're not and the children are maybe one or other or they're not sure what they are. So it's really confirms our identity and the way that we want to, to continue and to live our lives in being part of the Jewish community and everything that that means.

I'm Jonathan Goldwag and I'm a member of the Reform Movement.

I'm Gita Conn and I'm a member of the Reform Movement.

I'm Sheldon Mordsley and I'm part of the Reform Movement.

I'm Robert Shields, I'm a member of the Reform Movement.

My name is Debby Elley and I'm a member of the Reform Movement.

I'm Stephen Moss and I'm proud to be a member of the Reform Movement.

I'm Hannah and I'm a member of the Reform Movement.

HISTORY SECTION

From 1066 Jews came to England, but anti-Semitism led to their expulsion in 1290.

Through the influence of Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel, Cromwell opened the door for the readmission of Jews to British society in 1656, and by the beginning of the 18th Century, newly founded synagogues had lively congregations.

Jews continued to struggle for emancipation and, by the end of the 19th Century, England saw the first Jewish Knight, Lord Mayor, Sheriff and barristers; as well as MPs in the Lords and the Commons and the first and, thus far, only Prime Minister of Jewish birth.

This period also witnessed the establishment of the first Reform communities in West London and Manchester, and a massive influx of immigrants who transformed British Jewry from 25,000 to 350,000 souls.

By the 1920s, Jews were settled in every sphere of British life, serving in both Great Wars.

European survivors reinvigorated the progressive Jewish community after World War II and, in 1956, Leo Baeck Theological College was founded, ordaining the first female rabbi in 1975.

Six years later, the Sternberg Centre became home to the RSGB, and the organisation continued to move from the margins to the mainstream.

In 2006, as Rabbi Dr Tony Bayfield became the third Jew in 450 years to receive a Lambeth doctorate, the community celebrated 350 years in the United Kingdom and new ground was broken at the Sternberg Centre.

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This has been a really exciting year; it’s been a year of building and it’s been a year of delivery.

Would you visit this site and would you tell your friends about it?

More than one reason. I want to check it out ‘cos I know it’s the Movement for Reform Judaism website - see what they've come up with; see who else is on it as well.

This catches your attention straight away. It's interesting to know what's happening in the Jewish community, what's on and that kind of thing.

I'd certainly recommend it to people.

We are able to do on behalf of the community things that other parts of the community can't do but which need doing.

You consistently work with Islamists from the Muslim community who are opponents of Two States and who want Israel to disappear. If you want to have a foreign policy and take a stance on the Middle East, will you promote groups like OneVoice that work for dialogue and engagement?

Clapping

The Movement's obviously very outward-facing. By the Movement organising this event with the London Jewish Forum it’s certainly helped, I think, to cement those relationships and to highlight the role of the Movement within the wider London Jewish community.

When it comes to addressing the burning ethical issues of our time, we can unite the community and give leadership.

Social justice has always been a driver and when I think about the role that the synagogue, and particularly Finchley, has played in that it's about, it is about Tikkun Olam. The Movement has taken on issues of social justice, asylum and other important political issues.

It's a strange environment to welcome Shabbat. It's called the Climate Change Camp. It is to bring to everyone's attention the contribution of aircraft to global carbon emissions. The Earth Charter is a global declaration for a just, sustainable and peaceful society.

For me it’s about prophetic Judaism; about the world that we would like to see and that we would like to be a part of. The change that’s necessary, which God spoke of to Abraham. It was the whole of the purpose of the Jewish people to be a blessing to mankind.

This truck is going to Romania today. NHS wheelchairs that are maintained by the prison service. The prisoners put them back into working condition, then give them away to needy people and needy communities. We take them in and then send them out and they're like gold dust.

Over the last 2 or 3 years I've noticed a huge increase in the profile of the Reform Movement and, you know, certainly think that what it’s doing is absolutely fantastic now in terms of the 2020 Vision. The Reform Movement members are a key plank of our support and they also understand the notion of Tikkun Olam and helping others and the work we're doing in Darfur and did for the Tsunami.

I'm immensely excited that ResponsAbility, which is a cross-communal initiative, an initiative for the whole community, but one that we have prompted, is already taking off. It's ethical leadership above all else that we are really offering to the Jewish community.

singing

What a great celebration in itself as well as a wonderful welcome for me. I reflected that this is in honour of Westminster Abbey; it’s in honour of faith in Westminster; it’s in honour, above all, of being together and worshipping.

singing

We have really begun to deliver on the initiatives that we have been talking about, particularly towards young people, on the basis that, unless we reach out to them and meet their needs, we will not have any kind of future.

We're here for the Purim Spiel-Off. It's an annual competition where groups from around the country come together with plays about the Purim story and compete against one another.

We've got 6 different communities coming here together. They’ve each either written a play or made a film.

It's done completely by the young people themselves.

Tonight we're gonna have meet and greet while people arrive here. And then we're gonna have a service upstairs and then we’re gonna have a shared and communal meal.

Every so often you're able to get someone in who doesn't really come and isn't very interested and maybe it’s a way to get people more involved with the synagogue.

I'm Charlotte, hey nice to meet you. I’m Daniel, hello...

It's a nice community feeling; people get on well always. It’s nice. It’s good, it’s good. ‘Cos there's not that many young people in the area so its good for people just to get together now and again and have a good time basically, yeah.

What they get out of Shemesh is their friendship; a group of Jewish friends.

Shouting:

R.S.Y!

Most of the madrichim have grown up through RSY-Netzer, so they've been participants on our summer camps. And then when they're 16 they go on a two year leadership course, a hadracha course.

We've had loads of help like through the Hadracha Course on how to deliver well.

We’ve run a number of educational and fundraising programmes and we've also grown as a group.

We've run a charity week at Nicci's school which raised nearly £5,000 for the cause. We've also run a bag pack in Sainsbury’s and that raised over £500.

Throughout the year there are various different weekends for participants from different age groups. We do them nationally, but we also do them within the communities.

Singing:

See, now we're all here the time has come, to find a way with everyone to build upon ideals. We know that while we can be free, we've got the true ability to make the changes real.

Shouting:

Let’s hear you, nice and loud!

Singing:

RSY-Netzer Olami, yesh lanu z’man lifnot olam k’yehudim. RSY. RSY it-cha v’itee, v’gam kol ha k’lal shel netzer olami.

Over the last few months, I’ve come into contact with more and more young people. What I’ve learned is not only are we building and rolling out programmes, they are the right programmes. We are already touching Jewish lives; there is already the prospect of a brighter Jewish future.

Singing:

Friends, learning and having fun, we’ll take the chance while we are young; it’s the way we want to be. We share a ruach we can feel, form our own links with Israel…

Lord’s is ok, but I told Mike Grabiner it has to be West Ham next year.

(Music)

I like being Jewish because I like challah.

I like being Jewish because I can eat apple and honey.

I like being Jewish because I like Jewish festivals.

Because I think that the synagogue is the best one, the best place t..to..to pray.

I think what we're doing is really exciting and really important to Jewish continuity and the survival, the very survival of Jewish life in this country. We are seeking to reach out to people where they are in their lives and we want to help them strengthen their Jewish identity, while recognising that they’re living increasingly demanding and complex lives with lots of choices about how to use their time.

I've been involved for some 5 years as Living Judaism Fieldworker although I've been a member of Sinai for nearly 30 years.

We regularly have now 70/80 people having supper together after the Shabbat evening service once a month. And, most gratifyingly, it crosses the age range. We've been very conscious of people who live on the margins of a community - in this case the Sinai community. And as more people have got involved it has definitely changed the character of the community.

(Singing)

This weekend is the first time that we've been able to take away a group of young people from the community.

I think what the community has now taken on is the fact that change is dynamic; it doesn't stop. We haven't achieved an end goal.

I'd love to talk about Jewish Journeys just for a moment because I think in some way it encapsulates really what Living Judaism is about.

We take a group of people; people who might have no connections beforehand. We tell them clearly that we are going to go and explore a Jewish story. But not only do we explore a Jewish story, we in fact invite them to do some self-exploration.

(Singing)

Meeting up with Rabbi Michael Farbman and his wife, Olga, who are doing extraordinary work.

All six of the progressive rabbis in the Former Soviet Union were trained at Leo Baeck College.

In the 50 years since the College has been in existence, 150 progressive rabbis have been ordained and they have been serving communities throughout the world. Therefore, it is the intellectual and spiritual powerhouse that feeds the Reform Movement.

These people that I've grown up with are now gonna be spiritual leaders in the community. That can be really important in terms of pastoral care for 18-35s.

There are lots of people who seem to feel peripheral to Judaism and some way we have to include them.

Whenever there is a 5th Friday in a month, I invite all those who are unattached and in their 20s and 30s to come round to dinner at my place. It's quite noticeable they're coming to my house and not the synagogue because, actually, a meal is much more attractive than prayers. There are different ways of being Jewish and, whatever you want; you're welcome and the community, well, the synagogue should be a community centre, not just a house of prayer.

We’ve got the 2020 Vision which, of course, has changed the Movement and the Movement is changing all the time and is attracting young people and I mean that's what we need.

Well, I’ve been working at the Movement for Reform Judaism for the last four and a half years and I can honestly say that now is the most exciting time to be working here. Recently I went to see a member who had a particular interest in a website for young people and that’s exactly what we're working on at the moment.

We're setting up a new website for young adults which’ll help them talk to each other and us to talk to them and start building those types of contacts so we can find out how they’re getting on; what they’re doing; what they're up to; what they want from us; what we can do for them and have a real dialogue between them.

To be able to work with a team of people who are in that age group. Figure out how do we use technology how do we use globalisation; how do we use all of the things that are second language to them, and mesh that with a tradition that's thousands of years old in order to create a Judaism that’s relevant in the 21st century. They're going at be at the forefront.

One of the things that I find just incredibly exciting at the moment is there’s been an explosion on the web as a whole of social networking technologies. People are connecting up around, I suppose, creating communities of interest. And that explosion of those kind of tools, those kind of opportunities is something that we're very very keen to hook into.

To unearth, expose and meet real Jewish needs through a whole range of ways is actually what Reform Judaism is about. It’s about many ways, it’s about many paths, it’s about many journeys; and binding them into the journey of the Jewish people.

I was brought up Baptist. When Adam asked me to marry him I decided for myself that I would convert.

I am much more involved and much more devout now that Alex has gone through a conversion than I was before.

(Singing)

I always felt out of place, I never felt like I actually belonged there, whereas with the Reform Movement I feel like I've found a place that I do actually belong.

To put it at its most simple and stark, the 2020 Vision is a shift from institutional needs to the needs of individuals, so that by the time that we reach 2020, the future of the Jewish people in Britain is more secure than it is today.

(Music)