by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer

September 16, 2009

The Conservative movement’s New Jersey and Philadelphia regional offices will merge as part of a major restructuring approved Sept. 13 by United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

Citing budget pressures and the need to “help our synagogue communities to grow and flourish,” officials said the restructuring will reduce the number of USCJ regional offices from 15 to six. The moves, approved by the USCJ board of directors at a marathon meeting Sunday in Manhattan, will also mean cutting at least five jobs in the New York offices.

Officials said the moves are intended to provide member congregations with improved access to “resources, staff, and services,” which include helping coordinate rabbi searches, advising synagogues on governance, and in general connecting individual synagogues with the wider movement.

The changes come just two months after Rabbi Steven Wernick became USCJ executive vice president in July.

“I think it’s fantastic,” said USCJ NJ regional director Lisa Harris Glass. She said the changes would make the regional office “more nimble and able to react more quickly.”

Staffing decisions for the NJ-Philadelphia region have not yet been made.

“Synagogues are at the heart of Jewish life in North America, and our job at United Synagogue is to strengthen them and help them flourish,” wrote Raymond Goldstein, USCJ’s international president, and Wernick, in a letter announcing the changes. “The world has changed, the challenges facing us have changed, and we are changing too.”

The changes, which will begin being implemented in January and are expected to be completed by July, arrive at a time when some synagogues have expressed increasing disaffection with the organization.

‘Happening too soon’

Among the critics of the process was Rabbi Alan Silverstein of Congregation Agudath Israel of West Essex in Caldwell and a worldwide Conservative movement leader. He is part of the HaYom Coalition, an effort by more than 25 Conservative congregations that began last winter to push for dialogue with the organization, saying it needed to be more responsive to the needs of its dues-payers. The coalition demanded that USCJ establish a strategic planning commission that would include members of HaYom.

Silverstein characterized the new changes as budgetary necessities rather than strategic changes that are part of a larger vision.

“All these changes are short-term cost savings for administrative urgencies that reflect the importance of dealing with budget shortfalls,” he said. “They do not address the strategic plan — things like what should be the priorities of the organization, and what are its most important goals and objectives. It’s happening too soon to be that.”

USCJ did establish a strategic planning process in response to HaYom’s demands. Participants from HaYom are to take part in that process, which will include a full report and plan and is scheduled to take 12 months, said Silverstein.

Harvey Rosen, president of the NJ region, confirmed the establishment of the strategic planning committee, but took issue with Silverstein’s characterization of the changes that have been approved.

“The whole purpose is to get synagogues more access to resources, staff, and services,” he said. “What’s driving this whole thing is that synagogues have told us in no uncertain terms that they need more services and more resources. We are addressing this need. The budgetary crisis in the entire Jewish world is of course affecting United Synagogue and the synagogues. This has accelerated the pace of these changes.”

Rosen said the restructuring has been “in the works for one to two years.”

He said consolidation would increase services, not reduce them.

The organization will be “less consumed with office and overhead expenses” and have more resources for staff and consultants to visit synagogues more regularly and offer services on a more proactive basis, he said.

The current plan calls for every synagogue to have officers and staffers assigned to meet its needs. Rosen said USCJ is well positioned to offer congregations aid with developing boards, leadership issues, and governance structure.

Rabbi George Nudell of Congregation Beth Israel in Scotch Plains is supportive of USCJ in general, but has concerns about the restructuring.

At the NJ regional office, he said, Glass “has been an extraordinary resource for our synagogue. She is very helpful and responsive to our needs. I would hope that restructuring wouldn’t affect our access to her advice.”

Rabbi Avi Friedman of the Summit Jewish Community Center, who previously led Conservative congregations in Atlanta and in Pittsburgh, said the experiences of local synagogues vary with each region. 

“In the South and the Midwest, the regions have always been larger and the regional offices have always seemed further away,” he said. Although he said he would prefer that the announcement was “about new offices opening and larger regions being subdivided,” he pointed out that in an age of electronic communication, “the concern ought not to be how far away the office is. Instead, we should focus on how responsive the regional directors are to our needs as congregations.”

Citing Wernick’s “long track record of being a very capable administrator” before arriving at USCJ, he concluded, “I think Rabbi Wernick and his new team deserve the benefit of the doubt as they try to set a new course for the USCJ.”

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