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ONE OF the world’s oldest Progressive Jewish communities has donated a Sefer Torah to one of the youngest. West London Synagogue made the presentation to Madrid’s Reform congregation at the weekend.

Madrid was one of three new members — along with the French Assembly of Liberal Jews and Portugal’s first Progressive community — admitted to the European Union for Progressive Judaism at its biennial conference in London. The Spanish community previously had no Sefer Torah of its own.

More than 350 people from 29 countries, including 86 rabbis and student rabbis, attended the four-day event, which included an opening ceremony at Guildhall and a visit to the Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre.

Delegates passed a resolution calling on the Israeli government to begin implementing the establishment of an egalitarian prayer section at the Kotel in Jerusalem.

They also deplored the lack of a coordinated European response to the refugee crisis and urged members to exert pressure on authorities in their own countries to step up humanitarian action.

The conference — marking the 90th anniversary of the creation in London of the World Union for Progressive Judaism — also approved the launch of a Progressive Rabbinic Assembly to strengthen the union’s voice.

Liberal Judaism’s senior rabbi, Danny Rich, said in a concluding address: “Now more than ever, each of us holds multiple identities; English, British, European, Jewish, Liberal Jewish and so on. If Progressive Judaism in Europe is to have a bold future, it will need to accommodate itself to an even more complex array of identities which will make up the modern European Jew.”

Senior Reform rabbi Laura JannerKlausner said that “our inclusive and innovative formula for Jewish life is a magnet for young families, mixed couples and previously unaffiliated Jews”.