Out With the Old
The Victorian Union for Progressive Judaism has been replaced with a new organisation with a new constitution written for today’s community…Progressive Judaism Victoria.
Philip Bliss
With a new constitution and completed incorporation, the new organisation has moved its offices after thrity years from Temple Beth Israel into the administration block at the King David School.
Iin a statement, President Dr Philip Bliss said: “It has been an very exciting process with the stake holders in total agreement as to how and why PJV should be run. For the first time we have our own projects co-ordinator, Ellen Frajman, and we will have our new website and logo launched at the AGM at the end of November.
All our programming and activities will be structured to facilitate the basic role of growing Progressive Judaism and thus creating more congregational members.
We will be looking to create many more educational opportunities, especially with assistance from KDS and the UPJ and we are in the process of making our Introduction to Judaism a more relevant and enjoyable experience. We will be reaching out to Jews outside of the community and those alienated with out any affiliation. We will also be promoting an Israel awareness campaign that treats our Diaspora relationship to Israel in a more mature and hopefully beneficial outcome. We will be developing a strong marketing campaign and through our education committee bring scholars of note into our community. We will also be strongly supporting Netzer in their quest to work with the congregations to bring a vibrant Progressive Zionism to our young members. And we will be reaching out to country communities, such as we have in the Goldfields, to help sustain small pockets of Jewry who otherwise would be isolated.
We also hope to build up an enviable resource centre so that our affiliates and members don’t have to keep re-inventing the wheel but can access programs and ideas not only from around Australia but from our world roof body the World Union for Progressive Judaism.
So I hope the next few years will see a change in culture for our community with some very exciting opportunities to bolster our learning and understanding of Jewish life.”
