The Movement for Reform Judaism

The Reform Movement has been granted funding from Capacitybuilders 'Improving Reach' programme which will be used to coordinate a series of workshops and online support for all those in communities who are involved in communicating with membership and beyond.

PRESS RELEASE

London, 15 January 2007

The Reform Movement’s Living Judaism Fieldworker, Judy Plaut, who will be running the programme said: “We know that many communities experience the phenomenon of a core of people at the centre who work incredibly hard, but gradually feel demoralised because they feel that no-one else is getting involved. We aim to help communities to begin to address this common pattern by exploring the ways in which we communicate with those at the periphery of our membership.”

So far, plans are in place for a Northern Regional Workshop in Leeds in February and a second workshop at the Sternberg Centre in London in April.

Judy Plaut continued: “The workshops will be appropriate for anyone (and everyone) from communities who is involved in communicating with membership. This might include the newsletter editor, the webmaster, whoever writes the information on service sheets, who gives oral notices from the Bimah, who writes emails or an ezine (email magazine) to members, Council members, the rabbi and/or the chair! We aim to focus on how awareness of language use can be a key factor in helping a community to involve more members who might be residing at the margins of synagogue life.”

The regional workshops will be followed up by individual support and an ongoing web-based group forum for all participants. A half-day individual community based workshop on the topic of creating or improving existing community websites will also be offered to interested synagogues.

This programme forms part of the Reform Movement’s 2020 Vision which aims to reach out and meet the needs of more of its members and potential members across the UK, specifically focusing on being more inclusive and welcoming towards individuals on the margins of communal life.

If you would like to be involved in these workshops, please contact Judy Plaut

For further details, please contact:
Andrea Newman, Movement for Reform Judaism Public Relations Officer

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed