2026 Biennial

UPJ BIENNIAL CONFERENCE

Beyachad Kadimah — Moving Forward Together

Melbourne, Australia
November 19th – 22nd 2026

Registrations are now open:

REGISTER NOW

Every two years, something remarkable happens: people from congregations and communities across the country come together, and almost immediately, the challenges feel smaller and the possibilities feel larger. That’s the heart of Beyachad Kadimah. This year’s theme speaks to something we know you understand deeply. The work we do in our congregations, on our boards, in our communities is most powerful when we do it together. When we are connected, equipped, and moving in the same direction with shared clarity and purpose.

Questions about registration or the program? Please reach out directly to upj@upj.org.au

 

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FIRST SNEAK PEEK AT OUR FIRST SESSIONS:

BRAVE CONVERSATIONS: How to Discuss What Matters Most

A hands-on session on talking and listening across differences — turning disagreement into learning, and discomfort into growth.

Leading it are two remarkable educators:

Dr Dan Heller – Senior Lecturer and Co-Director of the Brave Conversations Project, is a historian focused on identity, memory, and how communities engage across difference. His book, No Topic Off Limits: Teaching Polarizing Issues in University Classrooms, is forthcoming with Princeton University Press.

Dr Farid Zaid – Senior Lecturer and Co-Director of the Brave Conversations Project, is a cognitive scientist and Deputy Director of the Graduate Diploma in Psychology at Monash University, whose work explores reasoning, metacognition, and the role of discomfort in learning.

Both are UWA Institute of Advanced Studies Visiting Fellows — a fitting pair to help our community practise the kind of brave, generous conversation Beyachad Kadimah is all about.

The full program will be announced in August — this is just a taste of what’s to come.

Places are limited. If you haven’t registered yet, we’d love for you to join us.

REGISTER NOW

 

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SATURDAY NIGHT GALA DINNER | 21 November
Live performance by Deborah Conway AM & Willy Zygier

We’re thrilled to announce that the legendary Deborah Conway AM and Willy Zygier will perform live at our Saturday night Gala Dinner.

But what makes this announcement feel especially right is who they are beyond the music. Deborah and Willy are members of our community, and their work has long woven together Jewish identity, story and spirit. Their music has always been about honesty, about belonging, about moving forward, together.

On Saturday evening 21 November, they’ll bring all of that into the room with us. This is not just a dinner, it’s an evening our community will remember.

BOOK NOW — EARLY BIRD PRICING STILL AVAILABLE

Places are limited. If you haven’t registered yet, we’d love for you to join us.

REGISTER NOW

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TWO NEW SESSIONS | Ilan Bloch & Dr Andre Oboler

We’re thrilled to announce that Ilan Bloch and Dr Andre Oboler will join us in Melbourne, bringing expertise, honesty and hard-won insight to two of the most pressing issues facing Jewish life today.

Ilan will draw on years spent in classrooms and on the ground in Israel to explore how we hold conversations about Israel that are honest, informed and built to last  with our students, our families and each other. Ilan Bloch is a qualified teacher and licensed Israel tour guide, who serves as the Director of Jewish Life and Learning at the King David School, which is renowned for providing a Progressive Jewish Education to our community in Melbourne.

Andre will bring his expertise to a conversation our community urgently needs how hate spreads online, how it touches us, and what we can do about it. Dr Andre Oboler is CEO of the Online Hate Prevention Institute, a charity that has been tackling all forms of online hate and extremism since 2012. He recently testified before the Royal Commission.

These are the conversations we don’t always know how to start  and Ilan and Andre will help us start them, together.

EARLY BIRD PRICING STILL AVAILABLE

Early bird pricing is still open a reminder of all that’s waiting in Melbourne: four days of connection, learning and shared purpose, with sessions like these at the heart of it.

REGISTER NOW

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INTERNATIONAL GUEST SPEAKER | ORLY EREZ-LIKHOVSKI

Over the past weeks, we have been introducing you to the extraordinary people who will make the UPJ Biennial 2025 an experience unlike any other.
Today, we are thrilled to share our most exciting announcement yet. We are deeply honoured to welcome Orly Erez-Likhovski to Melbourne as our international guest speaker.

Orly leads IRAC,  the Israel Religious Action Center,  the public and legal advocacy arm of the Reform Movement in Israel, and widely regarded as the preeminent civil and human rights organisation in Israel. Founded in 1987, IRAC fights for religious pluralism, social justice, and an inclusive Israeli democracy values that sit at the very heart of who we are as a progressive Jewish community. Orly has been at the forefront of that fight for over two decades.

A graduate of Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Law and Columbia University’s Master of Laws program in human rights, Orly clerked at the Israeli Supreme Court before joining IRAC in 2004. Under her legal leadership, IRAC achieved landmark victories: abolishing gender segregation on Israeli public buses, disqualifying racist candidates from standing for the Knesset, and securing the rights of LGBTQ couples to adopt children in Israel. Since November 2022, she has served as IRAC’s Executive Director — leading the organisation at one of the most consequential moments in Israel’s history.

Orly is also a member of a Reform congregation in Mevasseret Zion, where she lives with her family. She is not just a colleague in the global progressive Jewish community, she is one of us.

Orly will join us for three unmissable moments during the Biennial:

✦ Shabbat Dinner — Friday 20 November

Orly will speak at our Shabbat dinner — bringing her perspective from the front lines of the fight for religious freedom and progressive Jewish life in Israel to our table.

✦ Panel on the Future of Progressive/Reform Judaism in Israel and Australia/New Zeland

✦ Live Podcast Recording — Sunday 22 November

Orly will record a live podcast on Sunday morning — an intimate, in-conversation experience where we go deeper into the questions that matter most to our community right now.

In a moment when the relationship between progressive Judaism and the State of Israel has never felt more urgent or more complex, hearing directly from Orly will be a rare and remarkable privilege.

This is what Beyachad Kadimah means in practice, moving forward together, equipped with the knowledge, understanding and clarity to lead with confidence and unity.

REGISTER NOW — EARLY BIRD PRICING ENDS SOON

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