The South African Union for Progressive Judaism (SAUPJ) is an affiliate of the World Union for Progressive Judaism and supports 11 progressive congregations.November 2019 SAUPJ. Accessed on 6 December 2019Johannesburg: Culture & Community Reform Judaism. Accessed on 6 December 2019 Rabbi Moses Cyrus Weiler, a founder of Reform Judaism in the country, led the country's first Reform synagogue, Temple Israel in Hillbrow, Johannesburg.South Africa's Oldest Reform Synagogue Is a Place Where Few Jews Dare Venture Haaretz. 19 June 2019 Weiler is credited with growing the movement, to represent 15-17% of South African Jewry and establishing 25 congregations in the country (Shain 2011). A 2020 joint study by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research and the University of Cape Town showed that 12% of Jews identified as Progressive and that in relative terms the progressive strands are increasing after falling to 7% in 1998 and 2005 studies.The Jews of South Africa in 2019 JPR-KAPLAN. Retrieved on 15/03/21. In Johannesburg, the community accounts for 7% of the city's Jewry, rising to 18% in Cape Town and 25% in Durban.
History The movement was inspired when ethnologist Abraham Zevi Idelsohn visited his family in Johannesburg in September 1929 for his parents’ Golden Wedding anniversary. At the time Idelson was a professor at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion where he gave talks on the nature and principles of Reform Judaism. He urged his brother, Jerry to establish a group for progressive Judaism in Johannesburg. Jerry undertook this task and then joined his brother in Europe where they met several prominent leaders of the Progressive movement such as Lily Montagu. Montagu later sent Liberal Sabbath prayers books to use for services in South Africa.A history of Reform Judaism in SA SAUPJ. Accessed on 6 December 2019
Jerry then formed a committee in South Africa with Louis Caplan, Dr Louis Freed and Simund Haas. The earlier religious services took place in private homes in 1930. Jerry then popularized the movement by giving public lectures, writing about Progressive Judaism and speaking to the press. In June 1931 the South African Jewish Religious Union for Liberal Judaism was established with Jerry serving as honorary secretary. Then with the aid of Montagu and his brother, Jerry negotiated with Moses Cyrus Weiler, a student at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion to join the burgeoning movement in South Africa. Weiler arrived in Johannesburg in 1933 after being ordained as a rabbi.Madonsela to speak at Temple Israel milestone SAJR. 22 June 2016 A Progressive congregation was then formed with the first service taking place at the Freemasons' Hall. At the end of 1933 the Progressive movement purchased a site in Hillbrow, downtown Johannesburg to build a synagogue. The synagogue, Temple Israel was officially opened in 1936 with Weiler serving as rabbi.Although Weiler had been tasked with establishing a national Reform movement, he resisted establishing other congregations outside Hillbrow during his first ten years. He felt that it was more important to build a significant membership at Temple Israel before expanding nationwide. In 1943, he agreed to help set up the first progressive congregation in Cape Town, where he was surprised at its success with just under 25% of Cape Town Jewry affiliating themselves with Reform Judaism. In comparison, the percentage of Johannesburg Jews affiliated to the Reform branch has always been under 10%.Rabbi Weiler and the founding of the Reform movement in SA Progressive Jews (South Africa). August 2019
In the 1940s and 1950s there was a Johannesburg-Cape Town cultural split when progressive Jewish leadership in Cape Town rejected a proposal for the creation of the position of Chief Minister under which all Progressive congregations would fall. The appointee would have been Rabbi Weiler, who was based in Johannesburg.A compelling new history of Progressive Judaism in South Africa Jewish Affairs. 15 December 2020 Weiler had sent Victor Brasch as his emissary to Cape Town to assure the community of the need for central control, based in Johannesburg, and ensuring that each congregation follow the same formula. However, Cape Town wanted a looser federation where each city made its own decision and pushed back against the notion of a Chief Minister, arguing that it was against the democratic principles of Reform Judaism. In 1951, Cape Town quit the South African Union for Progressive Judaism and refused to return until 1963.
In 1950, The New York Times reported on Weiler's trip to New York where he was speaking at Temple Israel of the City of New York: "It is important that Reform Jewry in the United States take more interest in the welfare of progressive Judaism abroad and embark upon a Reform Jewish Marshall Plan. It should assist the progressive Jewish communities abroad morally and financially"JUDAISM OF ISRAEL DECLARED PATTERN; Rabbi Weiler Asks American Jews to Give Brethren Abroad 'a Reform Marshall Plan' The New York Times. 5 March 1950 Weiler made aliyah to Israel in 1958, his departure came as a surprise, although he was deeply upset by the schism with Cape Town. He is credited with having grown the movement considerably, with 25 congregations established during his tenure. There were at one point progressive congregations in smaller urban centres of the country, including Bloemfontein, Springs, Klerksdorp and Germiston.
As in other diaspora communities there have been tensions between the Progressive and Orthodox movements of the country. Rabbi Israel Abrahams, spiritual leader of the Orthodox Gardens Shul in Cape Town, was opposed to the arrival of Reform Judaism in Cape Town, with Temple Israel having opened in 1944. He arranged a series of meetings on the perils of the Reform tradition, and upon his appointment as Chief Rabbi in the Cape in 1951, attempted to prohibit his rabbis, cantors and Hebrew teachers from meeting with rabbis and other representatives of the Reform movement. He also attempted to prevent the movement from hiring communal halls.1930s: Part 2 University of Cape Town. Retrieved on 22 October 2023 Rabbi Phillip Rosenberg, the first spiritual leader of the Orthodox Marais Road Shul in Sea Point, distanced himself from Orthodoxy in a letter to Lily Montagu and welcomed the arrival of a Reform congregation in the Cape. Rosenberg later served both Orthodox and Reform congregations in South Africa. Dr Herman Kramer, a long-time Marais Road president, later became president of Cape Town's first Reform congregation, Temple Israel. In 1962, Marais Road allowed the Board of Deputies to host a lecture by visiting Rabbi Solomon Freehof, president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the World Union for Progressive Judaism at their large Jewish communal hall, Weizmann Hall.The Synagogue expands University of Cape Town. Retrieved on 22 October 2023 In 1965 a concordat was signed in Johannesburg between the Orthodox Chief Rabbi, Bernard M. Casper and Chief Minister of the United Progressive Jewish Congregations Rabbi Arthur Saul Super. They agreed that from "the religious point of view there is an unbridgeable gulf between Orthodoxy and Reform." (Hellig 1987)Super said that this was the conclusion he arrived at “after a thorough examination of the Halachic situation and the Halachic principles involved.” The agreement was welcomed by the Jewish establishment in the country, with the South African Jewish Board of Deputies describing it as “a very sensible and practical agreement.” However, within progressive Jewish circles it was regarded as a capitulation to Orthodoxy. Super was only representing Johannesburg's progressive congregations in the agreement. His counterpart in Cape Town, Rabbi David Sherman was opposed to the position taken by Super, stating that it amounted to “allowing ourselves to be read out of the community of Klal Yisrael."
Progressive Judaism peaked in the 1970s in terms of numbers, resources and self confidence. It accounted for around 15% of the Jewish population. Subsequent years became more challenging as the Soweto uprising prompted white emigration and sanctions impacted on overseas funding. The movement also faced competition as an Orthodox Jewish revival began to take hold in Johannesburg in the 1970s. Progressive leaders have argued that the non-observant Orthodox population observe less than their Progressive counterparts and that they would be more comfortable in the Progressive movement (Hellig 1987). A contentious issue between both movements has been over burial rights in Jewish cemeteries. Over time, accommodations and compromises has been reached. In the case of Durban and East London, the progressive communities formed their own Chevra Kadisha. In other cases, a separate section of an existing Jewish cemetery was set aside where burials could take place under a Progressive auspices.
On 6 August 1983 a limpet mine exploded outside Temple Israel, four hours before State President Marais Viljoen was scheduled to attend a ceremony marking the congregation's 50th anniversary. There were no injuries and the celebration went ahead with Viljoen in attendance. Mahommed Iqbal Shaik of the Dolphin Unit of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) later assumed responsibility during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings and he was granted amnesty.Bomb explodes at Johannesburg synagogue South African History Online. Accessed on 7 December 2019Synagogue in Johannesburg is damaged by an explosion The New York Times. 7 August 1983
The SAUPJ took the strongest stand of any of the Jewish movements in the country against apartheid. It opposed disinvestment while women in the movement engaged in social work as a form of protest. This includes the Moses Weiler School in Alexandra where for generations the school has been funded and led by women from the Progressive movement, even in opposition to the Bantu Education Act, 1953 (Feld 2014). The Mitzvah School on the site of Beit David in Sandton during the late 1980s was another example of successful outreach. Progressive rabbis were also more likely than their Orthodox counterparts to publicly oppose the apartheid policies of the National Party government. Although their respective congregations were usually more cautious than their leaders. In 1986, the Beit Emanuel rabbi, Norman Mendel reiterated this, telling an audience that Progressive Jewry in the country were leading the Jewish struggle against the “indefensible, immoral and evil” policies of apartheid. He said that Progressive Jews are opposing apartheid “against a backdrop of Jewish discrimination” from the Orthodox community. “There is day to day diminishment in the Reform movement in South Africa. Reform are considered a second class Jewish community,” he added.South Africa’s Reform Jews Leading Jewish Struggle Against Apartheid Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 6 January 1986
In 1993 there were divisions when Mendel's successor at Beit Emanuel, Rabbi Ady Asabi declared both the Beit Emanuel and Imanu-Shalom congregations as independent and Masorti synagogues, breaking with the SAUPJ and Progressive Judaism.Rabbi Ady Assabi The Independent. 26 June 2003 A court case ensued to retain both of the congregations under the SAUPJ. Beit Emanuel returned to the SAUPJ following an agreement and Shalom became independent and Masorti (Dubb and Shain 1995).