The United Synagogue

United Synagogue Chief Executive To Leave Post

PRESS COVERAGE

London, 3rd August, 2007

UNITED SYNAGOGUE CHIEF EXECUTIVE TO LEAVE POST

Rabbi Saul Zneimer, the chief executive of the United Synagogue and the first rabbi to hold the post, is leaving after six years at the helm of the UK’s largest Jewish organisation.

According to US sources, Rabbi Zneimer, who is away on holiday, sought a challenge in the commercial sector after a 15-year communal career. He joins the Lyons Presentation Group in Kentish Town, London, as chief operating officer but is likely to remain for the US at some months helping with the recruitment of a successor.

Dr Simon Hochhauser, president of the US, said that working with Rabbi Zneimer had been a “pleasure. He came to the United Synagogue at a difficult time. He tackled its many challenges with freshness and integrity. Above all, he has… created an organisation fit for the modern era.”

Rabbi Zneimer, 46, a schoolboy rugby international for Belgium and an Oxford University soccer blue, joined the US after spells in the Chief Rabbi’s office, in the pulpit at Kenton United Synagogue and as director of the Orthodox outreach organisation Encounter.

During his first years at the US, he had to negotiate a Charity Commission inquiry into the organisation and a slew of rabbinical grievances over pensions, housing and other employment issues. But he leaves the organisation financially secure, with reserves of more than £9 million and the successful launch of its young people’s division, Tribe, among its recent achievements.

The vice-chairman of the US rabbinical council, Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet, who was surprised by the news of his former colleague’s decision, said Rabbi Zneimer’s departure would be “a serious loss. He was extremely beneficial to the US and to the rabbinate as well. To have a rabbi who possesses the additional managerial skills is the right person for the position.”

Asked who would fit the bill, he said that no name instantly sprang to mind.

Others in the US hierarchy are believed to favour a candidate from the business rather than the rabbinical world.

Both the Reform and Liberal movements, however, are professionally led by rabbis. And when Rabbi Tony Bayfield stepped into the new role of head of the Reform movement earlier this year, another rabbi, Shoshana Gelfand, was chosen as his second-in-command as executive director.

In a statement, Rabbi Zneimer said he had been “privileged to serve the community… I have the feeling that the US is now very well positioned to embrace the challenges the future will bring.”


-END-

Article Credit, Jewish Chronicle, www.thejc.com

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