Yoffie stepping down as Reform leader

Rabbi Eric Yoffie NEW YORK (JTA) — The longtime leader of the Reform synagogue movement, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, announced that he will be stepping down in two years.

Yoffie, 63, president of the Union for Reform Judaism for the past 14 years, told the UJR board, he recognized that there are “burdens to this job and they cannot be borne forever” and felt it important to make way “for new thinking in our future-oriented movement.”

During his remaining time at the helm, Yoffie said he will focus on four priorities: improving the Reform movement’s youth group, increasing teenage participation in synagogue activities, creating a center that will house the various arms of the movement and boosting intra-movement cooperation until even before the center’s completion.

As URJ president, Yoffie spearheaded the controversial campaign to transform Reform worship and liturgy, a process that stressed a greater emphasis on Hebrew and tradition, and a more participatory musical style.

In addition, Yoff ie emerged as one of the Jewish community’s leading advocates of a robust U.S. role in advancing the peace process, and he frequently criticized Israeli settlement expansion. At the same time, he was not shy about placing the onus for the breakdown in negotiations on the Palestinians.

Yoffie also sparked headlines with his willingness to cross ideological, political and religious boundaries, most notably when he delivered major speeches to the Islamic Society of North America, an organization that has harshly criticized Israel, and Liberty University, the Baptist college founded by the late Jerry Falwell, a leading Christian conservative.