TORONTO — Ezra Moses is still concerned about the future of the Eastern Canadian Region of United Synagogue Youth (ECRUSY), but the 18-year-old Montrealer is not as worried as he was last fall, when he heard that some shuls with USY chapters might leave the umbrella body of Conservative Judaism.

Ezra Moses and Dov Smiley

Moses, ECRUSY’s president and a student at Montreal’s Dawson College, said he still worries about a potential loss of members from Adath Israel Congregation, Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Synagogue, and Beth Tzedec Congregation – the three large Toronto shuls that decided this spring to cut ties with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and allocate the money they would have spent on USCJ dues to more local programming.

But now that Moses knows that four other Toronto shuls are retaining their affiliation with the Conservative umbrella body, “I don’t worry about the region disappearing,” he said. “The region is strong, and will be resilient against this.”

Shuls can’t have USY chapters unless they’re USCJ members, but high school students from the newly unaffiliated congregations who have paid their annual dues are still USY members until their dues expire, said Rabbi Jennifer Gorman, director of youth activities for ECRUSY, which also includes Kadima, the USCJ’s program for middle school students.

Students from the disaffiliated shuls will, therefore, be able to attend this weekend’s regional convention of USY and Kadima, being held in St. Catharines, if they want to.

ECRUSY has about 450 members representing eight synagogues in six cities from Montreal to London, Ont., in addition to the three that have left. Other cities represented in ECRUSY are Ottawa, Toronto, St. Catharines and Hamilton.

To attend regional and international conventions or receive program scholarships, USY members must pay regional dues of $22 annually in addition to their USY chapter dues. The regional dues are paid through the chapters, and members must be chapter members in order to be regional members. Chapter members don’t have to belong to a particular synagogue to join its USY chapter.

“The only question [was] whether [members from the synagogues that left] would be required to join another chapter,” said Paul Kochberg, president of the USCJ’s Canadian region and chair of the USCJ’s youth commission. “We don’t want to penalize the kids, especially at this late date.”

But there is another issue. At least one USY member whose shul has left the USCJ is running for a regional board position.

“At this point, [members of synagogues that have left USCJ] are still members,” said Rabbi Gorman. “If it becomes an issue next year, we’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it. I will not say, ‘Thanks for your time, but because of the decision made by a few adults, this dream you had of running for executive board is not going to happen.’”

The convention will bring together 78 USYers and 36 Kadima members, and applications were still coming in as of last week, said Rabbi Gorman, herself a USY alumna. At least 10 Kadima students from synagogues that have left the USCJ had registered for the convention, she said.

This month’s event is one of at least three annual regional conventions and one larger international one that is attended by thousands of teens from across North America. The conventions combine religious, social, social action, Israel-related and leadership activities.

Moses, who has been involved with USY for four years, said he has learned “a lot of leadership skills” during that time.

Also, he added, although he comes from an observant home – his father is Rabbi Lionel Moses of Montreal’s Shaare Zion Congregation – he has “definitely learned a lot of Judaism over my four years.”

The interaction that students have with their peers from other cities at regional and international meetings is “a huge benefit,” Rabbi Gorman said. “You learn so much about how Judaism is expressed in different [geographic] areas…  [and] you make friendships during these events that last a lifetime.”

When Rabbi Gorman, a native of Long Island, N.Y., and her husband, Rabbi Sean Gorman, moved to Toronto so he could accept a position at Beth Tzedec, they already had friends here, a fact she attributes in part to her USY background.

“Knowing you’re part of the greater Jewish community is very significant, and I don’t think that without looking beyond your geographic area there’s the same connection,” she said.

Rabbi Jennifer Gorman currently teaches once a month at Beth Tzedec, one of the disaffiliated shuls, but she said her “dedication to USY certainly doesn’t waver.”

Dov Smiley, ECRUSY’s executive vice-president for Israel affairs, said the Toronto shuls’ decisions to leave the organization shows “divides in Toronto that shouldn’t exist… Now more than ever, the synagogues need unity to keep the youth interested in Judaism.”

Last Wednesday, Smiley implored group members in a posting on ECRUSY’s Facebook site to vote in a CJN online poll on whether Toronto Conservative synagogues should remain within the USCJ.

“In the wake of this ridiculous secession going on, we are trying to inform the public that the abolisment [sic] of USCJ in Canada will be disastrous for its youth, so show the world that you want to stay by voting. REMEMBER: NO USCJ IN CANADA, THERE WILL BE NO USY,” he wrote.