About me
Rabbi Jacqueline Koch Ellenson (NY ’83) is Director Emerita of the Women's Rabbinic Network, the international support and advocacy organization for women in the Reform rabbinate. She held the position of Director of the WRN from 2003-2015. As the first professional director of the WRN, she streamlined and professionalized the WRN’s operations, outreach, and activities. She is an International Vice-Chair of Rabbis for Women of the Wall, is a former Chair and board member of the Hadassah Foundation, has served on the boards of the Rodeph Sholom School, New York, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and the Yedidya Center for Jewish Spiritual Direction.
Jackie’s work has focused primarily on education in a variety of different settings, congregational and organizational. From 1992-2002, Jackie was the Jewish Chaplain at Harvard-Westlake School, Los Angeles. In that capacity, she taught comparative religion courses and developed the health education curriculum, as well as providing outreach to Jewish students at the school. Jackie led a Moving Traditions “Rosh Hodesh: It’s A Girl Thing!” Group for four years at Congregation Rodeph Sholom. She is a graduate of the Rabbinic Enrichment program of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality.
Jackie is an active member of Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City, where she leads text study groups, and facilitates “Wise Aging” groups. Her community work focuses on adult spiritual formation and direction, in the general community and with students at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, as well as activism on behalf of religious pluralism and women's rights in Israel. She is also a trained facilitator for “What Matters,” a program that seeks to integrate values-based conversations into end-of-life health-care decisions.
Jackie received her A.B. in Psychology from Barnard College, Columbia University in 1977, and was ordained by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, in 1983. She is married to David Ellenson, and they have 5 children and 4 grandchildren.
