[5] As in the other branches of worldwide Reform, these convictions laid little emphasis on practical observance and regarded the mechanisms of Jewish law as basically non-binding.

Bareheaded men and women sat together, and ritual or practical observance were explicitly ignored; nonexistent levels of adherence to traditional forms were the norm in the Orthodox United Synagogue as well, but not publicly.

The Election of Israel was reinterpreted in universalist terms, toning down the separateness of Jews and stressing their mission to spread the word of God among the nations.

Prayers for the Messiah to restore the sacrificial cult in Jerusalem, mentions of bodily resurrection and angels, and overt Jewish particularism were removed or at least greatly reformed.

The highly sterile character of Liberal services and communal life was replaced in the postwar years, especially since the 1970s, as part of a renewed turn to tradition in the WUPJ.

The denomination was particularly noted for its incorporation of highly progressive values and great proclivity to change, while the Movement for Reform Judaism appealed to a more conservative audience and had to be more moderate.

In addition, Mumbai's Rodef Shalom Congregation (now affiliated with the WUPJ) was founded as a member of the Jewish Religious Union, Liberal Judaism's antecedent.

In 2015, there were 37 fully affiliated Liberal Judaism congregations; these were all based throughout England with the exceptions of a Scottish one in Edinburgh, an Irish one in Dublin, and a Dutch one in Amsterdam.

His grasp of revelation also granted little importance to the divine origin of sacred texts, and Montefiore fully accepted higher criticism as to him, the human authors were influenced by God anyhow.

Communal politics and the need to accommodate conservative elements turned what was known as "Liberal Judaism" in the country into an intricate system of local arrangements, very moderate in nature.

West London and the two other nonconformist synagogues that withdrew from the authority of Chief Rabbi Hermann Adler, which would much later be the basis for the Movement for Reform Judaism, were scarcely motivated by deep conviction.

Religious life among English Jews was quite conservative, characterised by adherence to largely traditional forms on the official level, and general apathy among the masses.

The rise of Unitarianism, offering a universal message to acculturated upper classes of Anglo-Jewry, was accompanied by a wave of conversions, at a time when the Suffragette movement drew attention to the marginal role of women in synagogues.

On 4 February 1911, they became institutionalised upon the opening of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue at London, in which Hebrew Union College graduate Rabbi Israel Mattuck officiated.

It benefited to no significant extent from the great immigration of German Jewish refugees, who found it too radical and flocked to establish nonconformist synagogues of their own, eventually creating the Movement for Reform Judaism.