Rabbinical Assembly’s NJ region installs new leaders
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Rabbinical Assembly’s NJ region installs new leaders

July 10, 2025, 10:55 am Edit
From left: Rabbinical Assembly’s chief engagement officer, Rabbi Sheryl Katzman; Rabbi Esther Reed, Rutgers Hillel’s chief operating officer; Rabbi Paul D. Kerbel, president of the New Jersey Region of the Rabbinical Assembly; and Rabbi Jay Kornsgold, the Rabbinical Assembly’s international president.
From left: Rabbinical Assembly’s chief engagement officer, Rabbi Sheryl Katzman; Rabbi Esther Reed, Rutgers Hillel’s chief operating officer; Rabbi Paul D. Kerbel, president of the New Jersey Region of the Rabbinical Assembly; and Rabbi Jay Kornsgold, the Rabbinical Assembly’s international president.

The New Jersey region of the Rabbinical Assembly, the association of Conservative/Masorti rabbis, has named Rabbi Paul Kerbel of Temple Beth El Mekor Chayim of Cranford to lead it for the next two years.

At an end-of-the-year dinner at Congregation Beth Sholom in Teaneck, Rabbi Jay Kornsgold, the Rabbinical Assembly’s international president and the senior rabbi at Beth El, installed Rabbi Kerbel. He also installed Rabbi Cecelia Beyer of Temple Sholom in Bridgewater as vice president and Rabbi Matthew Nover of Beth El as secretary/treasurer.

Rabbi Sheryl Katzman, the Rabbinical Assembly’s chief operating officer, gave a d’var Torah.

In his remarks, Rabbi Kornsgold noted Rabbi Kerbel’s many contributions to the Rabbinical Assembly over his 40 years in the rabbinate. Rabbi Kerbel has been on the RA’s convention and derech eretz committees and now sits on its social justice commission’s food insecurity subcommittee.

Rabbi Kerbel also is on the Israel Allocations Committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest and chairs the newly formed Rabbinic Advisory Council of the New York/New Jersey region of the Anti-Defamation League, and he works closely with the clergy in Union County where the Conservative and Reform communities work together on an annual Shabbat in the Park and Selichot service.

Rabbi Kerbel succeeds Rabbi Esther Reed, the chief experience officer at Rutgers Hillel. Under Rabbi Reed’s leadership, the region emerged from the pandemic for in-person meetings to discuss the rise of antisemitism and anti-Israel activity on the college campus and how to respond to it, gathered for a two-day study kallah with Rutgers University Jewish studies Professor Azzan Yadin-Israel, and hosted a summer picnic for the region’s rabbis. Rabbis Reed and Kerbel hosted a High Holy Day seminar for colleagues to discuss High Holy Day sermon themes and how to navigate the many issues relating to the aftermath of October 7 in rabbinic messages.

The region also sponsors conversion courses, offered both in person and online and taught by Conservative rabbis. During Rabbi Reed’s tenure as RA president, 29 students completed the course.

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