When leaders from Liberal, Progressive and Reform congregations
in Europe, North America and other parts of the world gathered
in Berlin in August 1928 to convene the first World Union for
Progressive Judaism international conference, little could they
have imagined that in less than a century the World Union would
become the largest Jewish religious movement in the world, with
over 1.7 million constituents in 42 countries. Two years
earlier, in 1926, the World Union had been established in
London, under the dynamic leadership of Lily Montagu, its
honorary secretary, and Claude Montifiore, its first president.
The mandate of the newly formed organization was to unite into a
permanent Union the various progressive Jewish movements already
in existence in various countries of the world, and to establish
a movement presence wherever there were Jewish communities
prepared and committed to undertake such a challenge. There is
little wonder that the World Union’s first international
conference took place in Berlin.