[5] The denomination shares the basic tenets of Reform Judaism (alternatively known also as Progressive or Liberal) worldwide: a theistic, personal God; an ongoing revelation, under the influence of which all scripture was written – but not dictated by providence – that enables contemporary Jews to reach new religious insights without necessarily being committed to the conventions of the past; regarding the ethical and moral values of Judaism as its true essence, while ritual and practical observance are means to achieve spiritual elation and not an end to themselves – and therefore, rejecting the binding nature of Jewish law; a belief in the coming of a Messianic era rather than a personal Messiah, and in immortality of the soul only, instead of bodily resurrection.

[6] Jocelyn Hellig, professor of religious studies and one of the best-known interpreters of South African Judaism, wrote about the community in a seminal paper on Jewish practice published in 1987.

The paper also observed that for practical purposes, progressive Jews prefer to go through Orthodox channels to seek and attain divorce (Hellig 1987).

[4] However, in South Africa there was instant backlash to the Christian-sounding name of Confirmation and because of the ingrained rite of passage that a Bar Mitzvah held for Jewish boys.

Weiler quickly reintroduced Bar Mitzah and any dedicated students that were committed to Conformation did so under the guise of Hebrew names such as Bnei Emunah.

[4][7] The innovations in the services included the use of English alongside Hebrew, gender equality on synagogue committees and the eventual introduction of Bat Mitzvah ceremonies.

[4] Weiler also introduced a strong emphasis on Zionism, Temple Israel started the first local services where the Hebrew had Israeli-style Sephardic pronunciation rather than Ashkenazic.

South Africa did not experience a significant wave of Jewish migration from Germany, where Reform Judaism and the Haskalah originate (Hellig 1987).

Community growth may have also been stymied by the significance of the non-observant Orthodox, the dominant mode of Jewish religious identification in the country (Hellig 1987; Stier 2004).

[10] There are 11 progressive congregations, mostly concentrated in South Africa's metropolitan areas; Johannesburg (4), Cape Town (3), Durban (1), Pretoria (1), East London and Port Elizabeth.

Rabbi Sa'ar Shaked of Beit Emanuel Progressive Synagogue is currently involved in efforts to establish a Rabbinic Academy and Higher Education Institution in Gauteng.

[1] 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.

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.

[7] 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 enuring that each congregation follow the same formula.

[4] 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.

It should assist the progressive Jewish communities abroad morally and financially"[17] Weiler made aliyah to Israel in 1958, his departure came as a surprise, although he was deeply upset by the schism with Cape Town.

[18] 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.

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.

[7] 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.

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.

[7] 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.

[7] However, recent years have seen a revival with 12% of South African Jewry identifying as progressive in a 2020 study by the Kaplan Centre and the Institute for Jewish Policy Research .