An unprecedented step towards unity has been taken today by more than a third of Britain's Jewish community.

Leaders of the Reform, Liberal and Masorti movements, who represent about a third of the country's 300,000 Jewish people, have agreed a “Statement of Community Collaboration”, committing them to work together and respect each others’ traditions.

The statement is a "major shift" in the way in which the various synagogue movements work together, a spokesman said.

Referring to the recent refusal to admit a Jewish applicant to a top Orthodox Jewish school, he said that the new decision to work together by liberals was partly a response to exclusive and judgemental "fundamentalism" that was emerging within the community.

He denied that it was a move towards reuniting the liberal wing of British Jewry under one umbrella but senior insiders in the Reform movement told The Times that it was a significant step towards unity.

The movements have been divided since set up as independent movements from Orthodox Jewry at different times in the last two centuries. Masorti is closest to the Orthodox,and Liberal the farthest. The differences from the Orthodox concern issues such as Sabbath observance, ordaining women rabbis and blessing same-sex partnerships, as well as a more liberal approach to conversion and marriage with people of other faiths.

Working together, the new movements will offer for the first time a voice to challenge that of the Orthodox community's Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, until now seen as the main spokesman for the whole of the country's Jewish community.

The statement says: “Diversity is a reality within the British Jewish community but true pluralism (treating with respect other groups and their philosophies) is not, yet. We believe that British Jewry both needs and deserves better.”

Signed by the senior Rabbis of the Liberal, Masorti and Reform movements the statement says that the Jewish community cannot afford to divide against itself and calls for a new voice that is open, tolerant, collaborative and respectful.

Its signatories say that the statement is, in part, prompted by growing Jewish fundamentalism that, they say, is exclusive and judgmental.

They quote as one example of this trend the exclusion of pupils from JFS in London, the UK’s largest Jewish school, because of a refusal to recognise Israeli and other Jewish conversions as legitimate.

It calls on the whole community to show respect for one another’s leaders by honouring them, where appropriate, with titles such as “Rabbi” and “teacher”, a practice that is currently not universal.