The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism is excited to announce that Rabbi Steven Wernick will be its new executive vice president and chief executive officer. Rabbi Wernick will join us on July 1.

Rabbi Wernick was born into the Conservative movement and has chosen to make it his life’s work, so his understanding of it is bone-deep. The son of a Conservative rabbi, he is a former USYer and a Ramahnik, active as a teenager and a young adult in the movement’s youth group and its summer camp system. After his undergraduate education at the University of Minnesota, Rabbi Wernick earned a master’s degree in Hebrew letters from the University of Judaism in Los Angeles (now the American Jewish University) and another in Jewish education at the Jewish Theological Seminary before he was ordained there. He spent six years as associate rabbi at Temple Beth Sholom in Cherry Hill, New Jersey; since 2001 he has been the spiritual leader of Adath Israel in Merion Station, Pennsylvania.

Rabbi Wernick also has worked to develop community outside Adath Israel’s walls. He was president of his region’s Rabbinical Assembly, the organization for Conservative rabbis, from 2006 to 2008, and has been active in many other local organizations, both within and outside the Conservative movement. He will be able to use that background to work with the other groups that make up the Conservative movement and the wider Jewish world.

Rabbi Wernick’s life experiences have taken him across North America; he has lived, studied, and taught in Manitoba, Minnesota, California, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. His understanding of Conservative Jewish life in those many places will add immeasurably to his ability to work with congregations across North America as United Synagogue’s executive vice president.

Rabbi Wernick says that he hopes to move United Synagogue in the direction of ever-greater responsiveness, engagement, and transparency, a path sought by both United Synagogue’s board and its critics.

“I’m very excited to have the opportunity to play some small role in furthering Conservative Judaism, which has been my spiritual home for my entire life,” Rabbi Wernick said. “I believe very strongly that Conservative Judaism is a modern Judaism that has much to offer the Jewish world. Conservative Judaism is heart and soul and mind. It is for people who are on a path of Jewish growth, people who are looking for spiritually uplifting experiences, emotional connections to community and to other people, and the unique approach to Jewish text study that characterize Conservative Judaism. United Synagogue will be a catalyst for the creation, nurturing, and growth of Conservative synagogues, which remain the primary locus of Jewish life in North America. It also will incubate and nourish other dynamic Conservative communities, including Koach, for college students, and the minyanim that our 20- and 30somethings build.”

“Rabbi Steven Wernick brings to the leadership of United Synagogue a keen understanding of the challenges facing synagogues in the 21st century, having successfully served on the frontlines of congregational life,” Dr. Ron Wolfson, Fingerhut Professor of Education at the American Jewish University and president of Synagogue 3000, said. “I have no doubt that he will tackle these challenges with enthusiasm and vision.”

“Steven Wernick comes to us incredibly prepared, with incredibly high energy,” said Dr. Raymond B. Goldstein, United Synagogue’s international president. “He has good business acumen and understands the importance of building relationships. Even in this economy he is optimistic, although realistic, about the challenges we face. And because he’s lived on both coasts and in the Midwest, he knows what Jewish life is like across North America, and in small towns as well as in big cities. We’re very excited about the new directions he will lead us in.”

“Rabbi Wernick impressed the search committee with the depth of his research into and comprehension of United Synagogue’s budget and operations,” said Judy Yudof, United Synagogue’s immediate past president and like Goldstein a member of the search committee. “The optimism and energy he exudes is both engaging and contagious. He talked about the ‘need to take a calculated risk, infused with courage and wisdom,’ to move United Synagogue forward.

“I believe that with him we will move forward, and we will all share and grow in both our courage and our wisdom,” she said.

Rabbi Wernick’s wife, Jody, is a registered nurse who specializes in pediatrics. They have three daughters; Ziva, 13, Hannah, 11, and Alana, 8. His father, Rabbi Eugene Wernick, is a longtime pulpit rabbi who graduated from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1965 and now teaches advanced rabbinics at the Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union and is the rabbi of Congregation Beth Ohr in Old Bridge, New Jersey.