Evelyn Seelig

Evelyn Seelig, the immediate past president of MERCAZ USA, also served three terms as MERCAZ Vice-President. A veteran of organizational leadership within the Conservative Movement, Evelyn assumes the helm of the Movement's Zionist organization as she concludes her second term as president of Women League for Conservative Judaism.

Born in West Virginia, Evelyn was raised in Englewood, New Jersey. She graduated New York University with a degree in Banking and Finance and has been a front-runner in her field as a woman municipal bond analyst. Settling in Jericho, Long Island, with her husband Burton, Seelig was a charter member of Temple Beth Torah of Westbury, New York, and served as Sisterhood president and congregational financial secretary. To this day, she is a member of the synagogue's board of trustees and has been recognized by Temple Beth Torah as the honoree of its UJA Federation Campaign.

Evelyn's commitment to Zionism and Israel is well known. She attended the 32nd and 33rd World Zionist Congresses, participates as a MERCAZ delegate to the annual meetings of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency and is an officer of MERCAZ Olami. But more than being a place simply of meetings and conferences, Israel is like a second home, where her sister and her sister's family, members of the Masorti congregation on Jerusalem's French Hill, have been living since making aliyah in 1971.

Seelig's involvement with the national leadership of the Conservative Movement extends over more than two decades. She was president of the Eastern Long Island Branch of Women's League from 1976 to 1978, and before assuming the National presidency, she held nearly every position possible, chairing the National committees of Membership, Leadership Training, Social Action, and the Torah Fund Campaign for the Jewish Theological Seminary. Evelyn also serves on the boards of directors of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the Jewish Theological Seminary and the World Council of Conservative Synagogues. In 1985 she was a recipient of the Community Leadership Award from the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Evelyn and Burt have raised a daughter, Jill, who is a magazine sales manager, and a son, Steven, who is a tax attorney. Her own Jewish education includes adult bat mitzvah and continuing adult education courses. In addition to her many leadership roles within the Conservative Movement, Evelyn is a life member of Hadassah, a member of Magen David Adom and the Westbury UJA-Federation Women's Division.

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