Zale Newman - Community Leader

Community Leader

Newman is a prominent figure within Toronto's Jewish community, and has been especially active in producing music. He was a member of the Shema Kolenu group which produced two albums in the early 1970s, worked as record producer for Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach on nine albums, and helped create the group Uncle Moishy and the Mitzvah Men in 1979 to educate children about the Jewish religion. Newman has said that he provided the voice of Uncle Moishy on early albums. He is no longer active with the group.

He was appointed as the National Director of the Orthodox Union's National Conference of Synagogue Youth in 2003, after thirty-five years of working within the organization. Newman was forty-seven years old at the time of his appointment, and was a partner with Panfinancial in Toronto. He announced that he would use modern marketing techniques to reach out to a teenaged audience, and work against assimilation and intermarriage. He also focused on strengthening ties between Canada's Jewish community and Israel.

In 2006, Newman raised funds to help former residents of Gush Katif in Gaza relocate to a new settlement within Israel.

Currently, Newman teaches classes and occasionally leads services at Aish HaTorah's southern Toronto location, the Village Shul synagogue and Jewish education centre.