Reform Judaism in Israel

07/06/2026

🕯️ We are deeply saddened and alarmed by the firebombing of Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom in Montreal.

A synagogue is more than a building. It is a place of prayer, learning, community, and belonging. An attack on a synagogue is an attack on the right of Jews to gather openly and safely.

This attack comes amid a troubling rise in antisemitism directed at Jewish communities and institutions across Canada.

Just days after Jewish leaders and public officials, including Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, spoke about the importance of protecting Jewish life and ensuring that every person can live openly and safely as themselves, another synagogue has come under attack.

We are grateful that no injuries have been reported. Yet no Jewish community should have to wonder whether it is safe to enter its synagogue, send its children to Jewish schools, or live openly as Jews.

🤝 The Israel Reform Movement stands in solidarity with Rabbi Lisa Grushcow, the leadership and members of Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom, and the wider Jewish community of Montreal. We hold you in our hearts and stand with you at this difficult time.

https://www.facebook.com/share/1DAE86dqhZ/

Emanu-El-Beth Sholom

התנועה הרפורמית

07/06/2026

24/05/2026

What a Shavuot it was! 🌾🍇

From north to south, families, young adults, children, and seniors gathered in Reform congregations across the country to celebrate an open, vibrant, and living Israeli Judaism.

Our communities were filled with singing and learning, Tikkun Leil Shavuot gatherings, first-fruits ceremonies, choosing Torah anew, and the meaningful connections that remind us of the strength we find in one another, especially in times like these.

It was inspiring to see, once again, how Reform Judaism continues to draw tens of thousands of Israelis, offering a Judaism that is inclusive, relevant, and rooted in everyday life.

Shavuot was a celebration of hope, renewal, belonging, and a shared future.

Because Judaism belongs to all of us. 💙

24/05/2026

"The disparaging remarks made by Minister May Golan about Reform synagogues were a shameful expression of ignorance, incitement, and disrespect toward the millions of Jews in Israel and around the world who belong to the largest stream in Judaism: Reform Judaism.

Attempts to mock our faith are an act of baseless hatred and a direct blow to the vital relationship between the State of Israel and Jewish communities worldwide. When a minister in the Israeli government chooses to denigrate liberal streams of Judaism, she alienates millions of Jews in Israel and across the world who seek a meaningful connection to Israel, the homeland of the Jewish people in all its diversity.

Jewish tradition teaches us that 'Derech Eretz precedes Torah' and that human dignity is a foundational value.

We will continue to stand proudly for the right of every Jew to live their Judaism in freedom, equality, and dignity. And we will continue to offer the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who are weary of hatred and division a Judaism rooted in respect, inclusion, and mutual responsibility."

— Anna Kislanski, CEO, Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism


התנועה הרפורמית

24/05/2026

🌾📖 We are filled with excitement as our Mechina welcomed a new Torah scroll during Shavuot, the festival that celebrates the giving of the Torah!

We wish the Mechina the very blessing its members offered themselves:
May you continue to nurture generations of learners and leaders, and dedicate yourselves to a Torah that is thoughtful, just, and egalitarian.

Mazal tov to the entire Mechinat Telem community on this meaningful milestone.

14/05/2026

🌸 It is Jerusalem Day, and we are walking in the Flower March (מצעד הפרחים) through the streets of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is beautiful and complicated, sacred and deeply divided. It is a city of holiness, longing, beauty, tension, and encounter. A shared city, with many communities, identities, and realities.

Loving Jerusalem means more than celebrating it. It means shaping the city’s identity by refusing to accept violence, hostility, racism, or exclusion as part of its public space, and working toward a place of human dignity, freedom of religion, equality, and genuine partnership.

So we walk today to bring that presence into the streets of Jerusalem. Because the holiness of this city is deeply connected to the way we choose to live together within it. 🌺

התנועה הרפורמית

10/05/2026

** Public Statement by The Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism and the Council of Reform Rabbis in Israel **

“Jerusalem, built as a city bound firmly together” (Psalms 122:3)

Jerusalem Day invites us to aspire to the building and beauty of Jerusalem as a city of peace, partnership, and creativity; a city of prayer and longing, of hope and responsibility, bringing tidings of goodness, fellowship, and encounter to all. Jerusalem Day is a day of gratitude for what we have experienced and of yearning for the future that is within our power to shape.
Jerusalem is a powerful symbol of the ancient Jewish longing for Zion. In this spirit, Jerusalem Day is also a day to remember and honor the Aliyah of our sisters and brothers from the Beta Israel community of Ethiopia; a day to commemorate those who fell on the journey of return to Zion, whose self-sacrifice is an inseparable part of the heritage of the Jewish people.
Jerusalem is our home — the place where many congregations, academies, seminaries, representing the breadth of the different streams of Judaism exist alongside Islam and the many Christian traditions. Jerusalem is home to Reform Judaism’s global center and to Hebrew Union College, where our rabbis are trained. It is where the Movement’s communities open their doors to all who seek dialogue, connection, and partnership.
We seek to see Jerusalem — a city inhabited by Jews and Palestinians, Muslims and Christians — as a symbol of the ongoing aspiration for an equal and inclusive society, a society that cherishes the divine image within every human being. Far be it from us to accept a reality in which Jerusalem becomes a place of violence and hostility toward members of other faiths and peoples for whom this city is also home, whether through the actions of state authorities or through indifference to acts of bullying, violence, inequality, discrimination and racism, on Jerusalem Day or any other day of the year.
The holiness of Jerusalem is rooted in the memory of the past and commands us to create a shared human space in the present and for the future; a vision grounded in human dignity and liberty, and in the values of justice and peace. Love of Jerusalem is inseparable from a deep commitment to its future: a city in which all are equal in their rights and voices, where there is freedom of religion and conscience, and where the public sphere belongs to all its residents and all who love it, regardless of religion, race, gender, or s*x; a city that enables encounters free of exclusion and honors the diversity of beliefs across the human family. Only in this way can Jerusalem properly be seen as the heart of Jewish existence and as a center for the Divine Presence in Zion. As the prophet of the return to Zion declared: “Many nations shall join themselves to the Lord on that day, and they shall become My people, and I will dwell in your midst” (Zechariah 2:15).

🔗To read more https://reform.org.il/en/public-statements/a-vision-for-an-inclusive-jerusalem/

התנועה הרפורמית

04/05/2026

Tonight in Israel: Lag Ba’Omer 🔥
Think bonfires everywhere. Parks, neighborhoods, open spaces filled with kids and families gathering around the fire.
It’s a tradition that wasn’t fixed in text, but shaped over time, and it continues to evolve.
At the Israel Reform Movement, we encourage a different approach, marking Lag Ba’Omer in ways that reduce environmental harm, from air pollution to the risk of wildfires.
Because bringing light does not have to mean adding more flames.
Especially now, it can be an opportunity to focus on what we choose to build moving forward.
Tradition is something we inherit and continue to shape!
Lag Ba’Omer sameach 🔥

התנועה הרפורמית

30/04/2026

After sustained efforts by Reform/Arzenu representatives, KKL-JNF has decided not to renew most funding that had been **presented as “education”** but linked to violence and dispossession in the West Bank.

This is what values-driven leadership looks like in practice!

As Gidi Aizen, Arzenu-appointed Deputy Chair of KKL-JNF, shared:
“We are here to stand up for our values, fight injustice, and make clear that funding for violence has no place in KKL-JNF.”

We’re proud that Michal Sabel Darel and Ronit Boytner, our Reform representatives to KKL-JNF, are part of this ongoing effort to ensure public resources reflect a commitment to justice, responsibility, and human dignity.

📎 Read more: https://www.timesofisrael.com/jnf-halts-most-funding-for-at-risk-youth-in-west-bank-over-settler-violence-links/

📸 Pictured: Gidi Aizen with Michal Sabel Darel and Ronit Boytner, alongside KKL-JNF Chair Eyal Ostrinsky.

התנועה הרפורמית