Lorne Hanick has served as the Ritual Director of Beth Tzedec since August 1999.  A native of Toronto, he attended public schools as well as Beth Emeth and Beth Tikvah congregational schools and was active in United Synagogue Youth as a teenager. He went on to be a Jewish studies major in university, pursing a BA in Religion at York University, and an MA in Bible from the graduate school of the Jewish Theological Seminary. He spent two years in Israel studying at the Hebrew University and working on Kibbutzim.

Lorne likes computer technology and volunteering in the community.  In recent years he has become a not-so-amateur Jewish genealogist.