By Rabbi Cantor Gershon Silins

I recently returned from Chicago, where I attended, for the first time, the annual Convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (the CCAR), of which I am an overseas member. I found it to be inspiring.

The services were engaging and very well led, the sessions that I attended were useful and interesting. And the feeling of being supported by rabbinic colleagues, and the CCAR itself, was very powerful.

I was struck by the fact that all these rabbis, young and old, newly ordained or retired, were part of one movement, working together. (In the United States, cantors have their own distinct organisation, the American Conference of Cantors, of which I have been a member since 1990).

It’s not at all the case that everyone at the CCAR Convention agreed with one another, and in fact, several presentations were focused on making space for disagreement and difference, often but not always focused on Israel/Palestine. But there was an awareness, sometimes quite explicit, that we were all colleagues doing the same work in difficult times.

The differences were not submerged by the fact that virtually all these rabbis are members of one Progressive movement, the Union for Reform Judaism, founded in 1873 as the Union of American Hebrew Congregations; there was instead a feeling that the strength of the URJ, with 846 congregations in the United States and 27 in Canada, amplified everyone’s individual voice.

Members of the Central Conference of American Rabbis

The Union for Reform Judaism is very well established in North America and speaks with Jewish authority in many areas of life, including the political arena. Perhaps because there is no established religion in the United States, Progressive Judaism there expresses itself with confidence and is not sidelined by more traditional movements.

We can’t, and wouldn’t wish to, replicate the American Jewish experience, which arises out of a completely different history to ours here in the UK, but there is a lot we can learn from it.

I have a close friend in Chicago, not Jewish but very sympathetic to Jewish issues, and who has been inspired by the books of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z’l. When I explained the merger to him and told him about the two different progressive Jewish movement here in the UK, he asked me, “which of them was Rabbi Jonathan Sacks part of?” I had to explain yet another movement to him, United Synagogue, with its “Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth.”

The idea of a Chief Rabbi is a concept foreign to North American Jewish life. I suppose it was modelled here on the role of the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Anglican hierarchy. But much as I respect a rabbi of any movement, the “Chief Rabbi” is not my chief rabbi; no one is.

My Jewish understanding is formed out of conversation with, and learning from, many sources, including the rabbinic colleagues I esteem but with whom I do not always agree. That is the core of the rabbinic tradition — we argue, agree, disagree, and refute and argue again, and out of that chaotic, lively interaction, we create and re-create living Judaism.

That is the reality of both Liberal Judaism (LJ) and the Movement for Reform Judaism (MRJ) in the UK, and it will not be lost in the combined movement that we are working to build.

I believe very strongly that the merger between LJ and MRJ offers us an opportunity to strengthen the standing of Progressive Judaism in the UK beyond anything that either of the current movements could do individually.

Rabbi Cantor Gershon Silins (right) at his rabbinic ordination with Rabbi Igor Zinkov, Rabbi Daniela Touati and Rabbi Zahavit Shalev

I treasure Liberal Judaism, which I have been part of since I arrived in the UK in 2011, and I understand the concern that its specialness might be diluted by the merger. And there is almost certainly a similar feeling in the MRJ.

But I think the real danger for us at this moment is that failing to take what might be a once in a lifetime opportunity would leave us perpetually weak, perpetually sidelined, and in the long run might at worst lead to a terrible decline for both LJ and MRJ.

We can’t go back to the status quo ante, the state of things as they were before the merger was initiated. We can either go forward to a unified Progressive Jewish movement or, if we miss this opportunity, continue as two movements that attempted to renew and revitalise Progressive Judaism… and failed.

I believe the new movement will be stronger and more influential in the UK and in the world, than we have ever been before.

I have heard some say that it’s better not to be rushed into the merger so we can do it right, or that it’s better not to merge at all than to do it wrong. I don’t agree. There is an institutional momentum that has been building, and it can’t be put on hold without negative consequences, and continuing as two movements is quite possibly a recipe for a terminal decline.

Progressive Judaism Co-Leads Rabbi Charley Baginsky and Rabbi Josh Levy have been working with great energy on behalf of us all towards the goal of a unified movement. I want to celebrate this, and not wait until the work is done to offer my gratitude to both of them.

It hasn’t been easy, and they have brought immense energy to, for just one example, their many presentations to one synagogue community after another, answering the same questions over and over with patience and good humour.

I don’t expect any of us to hold back on stating concerns; I have some as well. But there will be no ‘Progressive Chief Rabbi,’ telling us what to think. There will be a lot of arguing, discussing and, I believe, rejoicing in support of the merger, which I have faith that we can do well, and which I believe will strengthen us as individual Jews, as rabbis and cantors, and as an increasingly powerful Progressive Jewish voice in the United Kingdom and beyond.