Netzer Olami

Netzer Olami is the worldwide youth movement of the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) and is affiliated to Arzenu (the Zionist arm of the WUPJ). "Netzer" is an acronym in Hebrew for Reform Zionist Youth (Noar Tsioini Reformi, נוער ציוני רפורמי), and Netzer Olami means 'Global Netzer'. Today there are 16,000 members active in our different sniffim (chapters) that are located in the following places: Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Germany, Israel (Noar Telem), North America (NFTY), Panama, Russia, South Africa, Spain, France, United Kingdom (LJY-Netzer, RSY-Netzer) and Ukraine. The Netzer Olami head office is in Beit Shmuel, Jerusalem.

Through their various sniffim, they run weekly meetings, summer and winter camps, residential Shabbatot, hadracha (leadership) training events, activism days, study events and seminars.

Netzer Olami works to bring together all of these young people in both ideological and practical ways, with Israel being a central focal point. They encourage as many chaverim (members) as possible to come to Israel on short term summer tours, on our long term leadership program, Shnat Netzer, and on various other seminars and conferences. They also send shlichim (educational emissaries) to several of the sniffim. These shlichim help the young people run their movement in their countries.

As a youth movement they believe in youth empowerment and in young people running things for themselves. A central feature of their sniffim is that young people take responsibility for the major decisions affecting the movement. Each year in Israel there is an International Veida (Conference) where policy for the whole movement is set by the young people who constitute its leadership.

As a youth movement, they also believe in a particular ideology, that is Reform Zionism, and they believe in taking an activist stance, striving to bring about the practical realization of that ideology in our world.