Organization of Conservative synagogues in the U.S. and Canada. The United Synagogue was founded in 1913 by a group of rabbis and educators under the leadership of Solomon Schechter. Through a series of departments and commissions it aids affiliated congregations in solving religious, educational, cultural, and administrative problems. These institutions include the department of education, the department of youth activities, the National Academy for Adult Jewish Studies, the department of regional activities, the department of programs, the Commission on Social Action, the National Ramah Commission, and the department of synagogue administration.

Some 800 congregations, serving more than 1.5 million people, are affiliated with the United Synagogue. As the representative of Conservative Jewry in the U.S., it participates with delegates of Orthodox and Reform organizations in the Synagogue Council of America. The United Synagogue is closely associated with the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and the Rabbinical Assembly of America. Close to fifty synagogues and groups belong to the Conservative, or Masorti, movement in Israel. Worldwide, conservative congregations are affiliated with the World Council of Synagogues.

The Women’s League for Conservative Judaism is the organization of Conservative synagogue sisterhoods.

The United Synagogue Youth is the national organization of teenagers (ages 13 through 17) affiliated with Conservative congregations, launched in December 1951. It presently consists of more than 500 chapters and seventeen regions. United Synagogue Youth sponsors twenty regional conferences, ten local summer camps, leadership training institutes, and a national convention annually. A two-month Israel Pilgrimage is conducted each summer.

United Synagogue Youth’s purpose is to provide high school youth with “an awareness of the essential harmony between the ideals and traditions of Judaism and American democracy,” as expressed by the Conservative movement.

The National Youth Commission of the United Synagogue of America guides and supervises United Synagogue Youth activity.