Netzer Olami

Netzer stands for Noar Tzioni Reformi ('Reform Zionist Youth') and is the International Zionist youth movement of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, home to thousands of young people in a range of countries around the world. Netzer Olami ('Worldwide Netzer') is based in Jerusalem and is the central headquarters for all Netzer's sniffim (branches). Through our various sniffim, we 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. We encourage as many chanichim (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. We 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 we believe in youth empowerment and in young people running things for themselves. A central feature of our 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, we also believe in a particular ideology, that is Reform Zionism, and we believe in taking an activist stance, striving to bring about the practical realization of that ideology in our world.