Rabbi Rick Jacobs

Rabbi Rick Jacobs has been the president of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) since 2012. The URJ is the largest, most powerful, and most diverse Jewish movement in North America with about 900 congregations reaching 1.5 million people. As an innovative thought leader at the forefront of progressive Judaism, Rabbi Jacobs has been featured in The New York Times, Associated Press, Washington Post, and CNN. He travels extensively throughout North America and Israel, making personal connections throughout the Reform movement’s network of congregations, camps, and communities. Rabbi Jacobs spent 20 years as a dynamic spiritual leader at Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, NY. Earlier he served Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, where he founded and co-directed the first synagogue-based homeless shelter in New York City. He is deeply engaged in Israel, where his family also has a home, and has been active in global social justice issues, leading disaster response efforts in Haiti and Darfur. In his weekly podcast, On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah, on ReformJudaism.org, Rabbi Jacobs offers insights into the weekly Torah portion to help open up Jewish thought and its contemporary influence on your life. He condenses 2,000 years of Jewish wisdom into just 10 minutes of modern-day commentary.