By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO— Although not quite yet a rabbi, former San Diegan Adam Rosenthal is a rising star in the Conservative movement of Judaism, serving on the executive board of its Zionist arm, Mercaz, and recently winning election as a delegate to the upcoming World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem.

Rosenthal, 26, is a fourth-year student at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City.  He is following in the footsteps of his father, Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal, spiritual leader of Tifereth Israel Synagogue in San Diego.

Before graduating from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, Rosenthal participated in a sophomore-year-abroad program at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.  "Coming back, I wanted to become more active" in Israel-related matters, he recalled in a telephone interview.  "I always had been a lover of Israel and the Conservative movement was always a home to me," so Mercaz (which takes its name from the Hebrew word for "center") was a good fit for him.  He was impressed that it "lobbied for Conservative values within Israeli society" and favored "religious pluralism, environmental awareness and aliyah from all parts of the globe."

Rosenthal said that by e-mail he "contacted the leadership and asked how I could be involved, and they said you can become a member, and get other people involved.  They said we will have a World Zionist Congress coming up in a year (that is, in 2002), and that I could register people to vote.  I did, and they invited me to be on the slate."

He was elected as an alternate to the 34th World Zionist Congress, during which Jewish delegates from Israel and the Diaspora debated a variety of issues, including that of settlements in the Palestinian territories.  "Some were opposed to settlements, others favored them," Rosenthal recalled.  In addition, delegates spoke out on such questions as "religious identity and tolerance in Israeli society," he said.

Following that Congress, Rosenthal was invited to become a member of the American board of directors of Mercaz.  

In the most recent election, under rules adopted by Mercaz, every fourth delegate on the slate was a "youth delegate," that is, between the ages of  18 and 30.  Rosenthal was placed 40th on the slate, and when voting by Jews in the United States resulted in Mercaz receiving 32 of the 145 U.S. delegate positions at the upcoming Congress, it appeared that Rosenthal would again be an alternate. However,  two youth delegates on the list ahead of him indicated they could not attend the 35th Congress which will be held  June 19-22 in Jerusalem. Accordingly, Rosenthal was moved up to full delegate.

Rosenthal noted that the Congress will meet between Israel's March 28 Knesset elections and the U.S. congressional elections on Nov. 7.  With 190  delegates of the 500 coming from Israel, 145 from the United States and 165 from all the other countries of the world, those two elections are likely to be of consuming interest to the delegates.

With the withdrawal of settlements from Gaza already having taken place, and the expected winner in the March 28 elections—Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert—pondering what unilateral steps should be taken on the West Bank regarding settlements, Rosenthal predicted the issue of further withdrawals may be the dominant concern at the World Zionist Congress.

He said that he personally believed that former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who now lies in a coma in a Jerusalem hospital, had been correct to insist upon the withdrawal of the settlements from the Gaza, although "we cannot underrate how difficult it was for people to leave their homes—in some cases, families had been there for three generations... "

Whether he favors future withdrawals from the West Bank "will depend on the circumstances," Rosenthal said. "It is a little mysterious to me what the next step is intended to be.  I don't see this government making strong statements," he said.

"A lot of Jews from all over the world, and especially the United States, feel that we have an opinion about what should go on in Israel—not only about 'land for peace' or who should be the prime minister, but also about things like how much money should be allocated for aliyah (immigration to Israel) and how much money should be allocated for shlichim (Israeli representatives to Diaspora communities)" he said.

"North American Jews have a vested interest in having education programs (in the United States) and also a portion of the funds allocated by the World Zionist Congress goes for missions (trips to Israel) for students," he said.  "On top of that we have our feelings about how things should be done in Israel to promote religious diversity."

For example, said Rosenthal, he believes there should be more centers in Israel where people can become acquainted with Conservative and Reform Judaism. 

"This year they are dubbing the Congress as 'the Congress of the Jewish People,'" he noted. "There is no other democratic body that presumes or tries to represent the Jewish people as a whole.  So it enables us to say how we feel about what goes on in the world—how we feel about anti-Semitism, how we feel about Jews being killed in France."

Rosenthal and his wife, the former Sarah Sherwood, reside in the area of Manhattan close to Grant's Tomb.  Sarah Rosenthal had served as a staff  member at the Hillel at San Diego State University from 2000 to 2002.  The couple met "in the Spring of 2001 "at my father's synagogue and at my parents' home when they invited her and other graduate students," Rosenthal recalled.  "A year later we met again, and both times were at Tifereth Israel."  Today Sarah Rosenthal works as a case manager for an agency that handles special needs foster care programs in Harlem for the City of New York.