Leicester Progressive Jewish Community is an affiliate of Liberal Judaism and we value the continuity of our Jewish heritage. We also reinterpret Jewish traditions to keep pace with our modern society whilst we believe in preserving all that is good in tradition.

Liberal Judaism values truth above tradition, sincerity above conformity, and all human needs above legal technicalities. It promotes pluralism and engages in dialogue with other streams of Judaism, other religions, cultures and philosophies.

As a consequence our religious practice is a blend of both traditional and modern interpretation of texts. Our community supports gender equality in the participation of services and children are encouraged to be fully involved.

We actively participate in the multi faith life in Leicester. Our president represents the community on Leicester Council of Faiths. Our social action officer is our representative on the Leicester Faith Support Group for Asylum Seekers and Refugees.

Our community name, Neve Shalom, means oasis of peace and is a tribute to the village near Jerusalem known as Neve Shalom/Wahat al Salam in which Jewish and Palestinian-Arab citizens of Israel live together to create harmony and diversity. The life of that village is a constant source of inspiration and a beacon of hope for peace. 

Extract from Building a Community by Rosalind Adam

One of the Torah scrolls used regulaly for Shabbat morning Services is an historic artefact. It is a Czech Scroll with a deeply moving story to tell. When the community acquired the scroll, little was known about its background and it was badly in need of repair. The history of the scroll was slowly pieced together as follows:

Contact was made from Westminster Synagogue in London in May 1966 telling the congregation that a scroll was being made available. The minister of Westminster Synagogue, Revd. Dr Harold Reinhart, wrote an information booklet about this very special collection of artifacts in a museum in Czechoslovakia. The following is an extract from the booklet:

"The museum in Prague contains relics of the destroyed communities. Many Nazis fancied themselves as apostles of culture. Certainly they were enterprising and effcient. Their looting of art treasures wherever their marauding armies marched was on a scale unprecedented. In the city of Prague, the capital of the “protectorate” of Czechoslovakia, they gathered together the gold and silver ornaments, vestments, pictures, books and manuscripts from the desolated synagogues of Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia. It is said that they contemplated a permanent exhibition of the works of “an exterminated ethnographical group.” The task of arranging and cataloguing was assigned to talented Jews, who received a reprieve for the appointed labour before being shipped off for extermination. Among the treasure here gathered was a huge number of Sifre Torah."

For those Jewish congregations receiving one of the scrolls, it was seen as a most powerful symbol of the Holocaust. What had been assigned to history had become real once more. In 1967 a memorial rose was planted in the Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre at Newark with the inscription:

The Scroll is on permanent loan to LPJC. The certifcate accompanying it states that it is no. 228 of 1564 Czech Memorial Sifre Torah. It is from the synagogue in Ostrau, also known as Moravska Ostrava, which is in Moravia near the Polish border. 

The scroll was written in the late 19th century.