Jewish star, kippa and Hebrew text
Kolot Mayim Values
Kolot Mayim is a community hub for Reform-based services in Victoria. We provide religious services, personal engagement, and learning opportunities.
We welcome Jews by birth and by choice. We welcome individuals, couples, and families of diverse backgrounds and abilities.
We encourage living with Jewish values and practices, in accordance with Canadian Reform Judaism. We value lifelong learning about our Jewish history and culture.
We are supportive of our Jewish homeland Israel, its values, traditions, and history. We believe Israel is paramount to the survival and security of Jews worldwide.
Kolot Mayim – “Voices of the Water” is Victoria’s Reform Congregation. Our shul was founded in 1998 by a few dedicated families who met monthly in each other’s living rooms. Since then we have grown into an inclusive, warm and welcoming congregation. Our congregation and its leadership have a strong focus on learning about, practicing, and celebrating Jewish life. To this end Kolot Mayim is making a healthy contribution to a thriving Jewish Community in Victoria.
Reform Judaism
- Affirms the central tenets of Judaism- God, Torah and Israel
- Members come from a variety of Jewish backgrounds
- Children are Jewish if one parent is Jewish and the children are raised as Jews
- Committed to full equality of men and women in all areas of synagogue leadership and religious life
- Was the first denomination to ordain female Rabbis, today approximately half of Reform Rabbis are women, as is our own rabbi, Rabbi Lynn Greenhough
- Welcomes Jewish people and their families
- Supports interfaith couples and families and most Reform Rabbis will perform interfaith marriages
