Close to 3,000 OU supporters and congregants of OU-member synagogues participated in the 2014 OU West Coast Convention, held in shuls throughout the greater Los Angeles area this past December. The OU West Coast annual convention is community-based and aims to involve local OU member synagogues and its congregants in meaningful shiurim and lectures impacting the community-at-large. Scholars-in-residence are hosted within the community, pairing appropriate orators with individual shuls.
Speakers at the event included Allen I. Fagin, OU executive vice president; Rabbi Steven Weil, senior managing director of the OU; Rabbi Hershel Schachter, posek of OU Kosher and rosh yeshivah at Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS); Rabbi Moshe Weinberger, mashpia (spiritual mentor) at RIETS; Rabbi Daniel Z. Feldman, rosh yeshivah at RIETS; Rabbi Ronald Schwarzberg, director of rabbinic placement at Yeshiva University’s Center for the Jewish Future; Rabbi Dr. Moshe Goldfeder, member of the Atlanta Dayanut Institute and adjunct professor of law at Emory University; Rabbi Menachem Leibtag, Bible scholar and Israel-based educator and Rabbi Dr. Hillel Goldberg, executive editor of Denver’s Intermountain Jewish News and contributing editor of Jewish Action.