A Mercer County rabbi has been chosen to receive the most prestigious rabbinical award of the New Jersey Region of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

Rabbi Jay Kornsgold of Beth El Synagogue in East Windsor will be honored with the organization’s Keter Torah Rabbinical Leadership Award, one of five awards to be presented at the region’s third annual Medinat HaGan Awards Reception and Celebration. The event is set for Wednesday, April 18, at 6 p.m. at Temple Beth Ahm in Springfield.

“I think it is a great honor, and I’m very humbled by the whole thing,” Kornsgold said during a recent interview in his office. “I’m very touched that United Synagogue has seen the things I’ve accomplished and felt that I merited this award.”

“I use the word ‘humbled,’” he added, “because I know that a lot of my colleagues in the NJ Region of the Rabbinical Assembly are doing a great job in their communities. So to have been singled out for this award makes it even more special.”

Lisa Harris Glass, executive director of the regional organization, noted that Kornsgold is only the third rabbi ever to receive the Keter Torah Rabbinical Leadership Award. The others are Rabbi Ron Isaacs of Temple Sholom in Bridgewater and Rabbi Gerald Zelizer of Congregation Neve Shalom in Metuchen.

“He’s in remarkably good company,” Glass said during a phone interview. “He definitely has his eye and his mind on the movement as a whole, and he’s cognizant not only of his own role but of his synagogue’s role in the greater movement, and that is something we value and admire.”

Kornsgold, religious leader of the 380-family Beth El since 1994, has carried out leadership roles in the local, regional, and international arenas. He is a member of the Executive Council of the Rabbinical Assembly, the worldwide umbrella organization of more than 1,600 Conservative rabbis, and a recent past president of the R.A.’s NJ Region, which currently serves 64 rabbis.

On the international level, Kornsgold is in his second year as chair of the Rabbinical Assembly Resolutions Committee. He is a member of the 2007 Rabbinical Assembly Convention Committee, and he served for four years as a representative of the R.A. on the Conservative movement’s Joint Placement Commission.

Among other leadership positions, Rabbi Kornsgold serves on the boards of the Albert A. List College of Jewish Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the National Rabbinic Cabinet of State of Israel Bonds, and the Center for Jewish Life at Princeton University. He is a past president of both the Board of Rabbis of Princeton Mercer Bucks and the Windsor-Hightstown Area Ministerium, which promotes interfaith dialogue.

He formerly served as adviser to the Northern NJ Region of the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs and as a member of the board of Abrams Hebrew Academy in Yardley.

In his role as chair of the Rabbinical Assembly Resolutions Committee, Kornsgold said, he runs the resolution sessions at the organization’s annual convention and oversees the drafting of movement-wide resolutions on a variety of issues, such as Jewish education, global anti-Semitism, the war in Iraq, civil liberties, and the genocide in Darfur.

“I look at my role as two things, trying to encourage those who would like to write a resolution — that it’s an open-door policy — and … trying to build some kind of consensus,” he said. “Last year, all the resolutions we approved through the committee were brought in affirmatively by the convention. It’s my hope and prayer that that will be the case this year.”

As president of the local region of the R.A., from 2000 to 2002, Kornsgold presided over the revamping of the Institute for Conversion and Outreach Education, and he worked to increase communication between the rabbinical and congregational arms of the movement.

“I tried to bridge the gap between the assembly and United Synagogue, and really tried to work together on various programs and ideas,” he said. “We had the Leadership Council for Conservative Judaism, bringing together the presidents of all the constituent organizations. That’s one of the things I would love to see reinvigorated.”

Throughout his forays into the wider world of Conservative Judaism, Kornsgold said, he has always appreciated the support of his wife, Leslie, and his congregation.

“This award is also a thank you to them for affording me the opportunity to do what I do,” he said. “It’s a balancing act, obviously. I think for me, the way I look at the role of the rabbi as teacher, I can not only be a teacher to our congregation, but I can also take that message and share it with others. I also think that by being involved as a rabbi and a person, you grow, and you’re able to bring those things you learn back to your own community, and the synagogue community grows as well.”

The assembly’s New Jersey Region will present four other awards at the April 18 reception: the Nathan H. Winter Professional Excellence Award to Cantor Mark Biddleman of Temple Emanuel in Woodcliff Lake; the Simon Schwartz Leadership Award to Dr. M. Barry Bochner of Congregation Agudath Israel in Caldwell; the Keter Shem Tov Leadership Award to Alice and David Goldfarb of Temple Beth-El Mekor Chayim in Cranford and Temple Beth Shalom in Livingston; and the Distinguished Alumnus Award to Michelle Rich of Temple Beth Ahm in Aberdeen, youth director for the New Jersey Region of United Synagogue.

For information about the reception, which is open to the community, call the R.A. at 732-738-4301.