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Rabbi Michael Pont of Temple Beth Ahm, Aberdeen, was named the new president of the New Jersey Rabbinical Assembly, one of 24 regions that make up the Conser-vative movement's international Rabbinical Assembly, headquartered in New York City.

Pont, who has been in-volved in leadership positions at the NJRA for three years, told The Jewish State in a phone interview May 28 that he is looking forward to his two-year term.

"I'm excited about the possibilities of bringing rabbis together," Pont said. "I personally always look forward to getting together with colleagues because there's always a rich exchange of ideas -- I learn from my colleagues and I bring it back to my own synagogue."

Originally from Detroit, Pont received his rabbinical ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1999 and has been a practicing rabbi for 11 years. He came to Beth Am as its rabbi six years ago. He served on the NJRA's board of trustees for three years. On the board, he served as corresponding secretary, vice president of special programs, and this past year, he was the vice president of programming.

"I was offered the position. It was my time to move up," Pont said. Pont is only one of more than 120 rabbis in New Jersey that are part of the Rabbinical Association. Pont sees the organization as one that "provides programming, educational opportunities, and all-around support for colleagues."

"In New Jersey, the state is north and south, and by and large, it's hard for us to meet one another, to get together," Pont said. "The NJRA should provide those opportunities."

One of the opportunities Pont wants to provide is to keep the NJRA up-to-date with what's happening at the various national Conservative organizations, so that NJRA members are aware of decisions being made at the top levels of the Conservative movement.

"The programs can be meeting with a specific leader in the Conservative movement so we can get an update of what's happening at the Jewish Theological Seminary, at United Synagogue, [and others]," Pont said. "The movement has a lot of different organizations and I would like to know rabbis to know what's happening at these different organizations, for example."

Pont placed a strong emphasis on the importance of Conservative rabbis to come together and study Talmud and other Jewish texts, in order to strengthen their own knowledge and return to their congregations with a fresh array of Jewish knowledge, advice, and life lessons.

"I want to create opportunities for rabbis to get together and study texts," Pont said. "It's important for us to keep studying, and there's a lot of text out there -- rabbinic literature, midrash, Talmud... and our plan is to set up regional studies. There can be two or three different sites in the state where rabbis can gather and study texts together, with a chevruta, and with a teacher, if possible."

Pont hopes that his optimistic personality will help him unite as many Conservative rabbis in New Jersey as possible.

"Rabbis are very busy people, like any other professional, and it can be challenging to bring them together, but I focus on this as an opportunity to do so," Pont said.

Pont does not just want to do his job to provide these educational and networking opportunities -- he wants to see Conservative rabbis unite to enhance the Conservative community in his state, in his own backyard.

"What the NJRA can really offer to colleagues is the opportunity to come together throughout the year, both for specific programs that are pertinent to us and for learning, for study," Pont said. "Both are very valuable to rabbis. We need to have opportunities to come together to just talk and exchange information about our jobs, network, to learn from each other."