United Synagogue Elects Dr. Ray Goldstein International President

Raymond B. Goldstein, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism’s 25th international president, has been affiliated with the Conservative movement all his life, as he steadily climbed its leadership ladder.

Dr. Goldstein, who earned a Ph.D. in zoology from the University in Nebraska, specializing in avian behavior, is president of Us, Inc., a high-tech firm. He and his wife, Jody, an educator, have two daughters, two sons-in-law, and a grandson.

Born in New York City to parents who were leaders in their Conservative synagogue, his father as president, his mother as sisterhood president, Dr. Goldstein followed the model they set. He was president of his synagogue in Omaha, Neb.; when his career took him to Rochester, Minn., he became president of the synagogue there as well. Becoming active in United Synagogue on the regional level, Dr. Goldstein became president of the Central States and Provinces region; in fact, he was the region’s last president before it became reconfigured as Mid-Continent, and he still sits on its executive board. Since 1996 he has been on United Synagogue’s Council of Regional Presidents, and from 2002 to 2003 he was its chair. He has served on a wide range of committees for United Synagogue on the international level, and so he knows a great deal about the movement’s many activities. From 2003 until assuming the presidency Dr. Goldstein was vice president for services to congregations, and since 2002 he has been a member of the president’s cabinet. He has been a member of United Synagogue’s board since 1996.

Dr. Goldstein believes that the Conservative movement’s energy comes from the balance between tradition and change that it constantly seeks. “Our voice comes from a long tradition of the tension between our heritage and modern life,” he says. “We live in that tension and each of us is a dugmah, a role model, to others. We must set an example of pride in the tenets of the Conservative movement, of religiously enlightened modern living.”

Dr. Goldstein is a board member of Beth Jacob Congregation and Mercaz. His outside activities have included chairing his local county environmental commission, serving as president of the Rochester Civic Theatre Board, and chairing the Nebraska Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Foundation’s board and the citizen advisory board of Omaha’s Metropolitan Area Planning Agency.