Rabbi Rick Jacobs has been the Senior Rabbi of Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, New York since 1991. Having been ordained in 1982 by HUC-JIR in New York, he served as the Rabbi of the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue from 1982 until 1991. During his first five years there, he also served as the Educational Director.

From 1980 to 1986, Rabbi Jacobs was a dancer and a choreographer with the Avodah Dance Ensemble, a modern dance company which performs services in dance and concerts throughout the United States. Currently he is working on his Ph.D. in Ritual Dance at New York University. He is the co-author with David Ellenson of “Scholarship and Faith: David Hoffman and His Relationship to Wissenshaft Des Judentums,” Modern Judaism, February 1988 and “The Body of Prayer,” Compass, Spring-Summer 1989. Rabbi Jacobs has led workshops on Movement and Prayer at HUC-JIR, Union Theological Seminary and at other settings. Rabbi Jacobs serves on the Board of ARZA/World Union, Religion in American Life and Synagogue 3000, where he is also a program fellow. He has been on the international board of the New Israel Fund since 1992, and now he is the co-chair of the NIF’s Rabbinical Council.

Rabbi Jacobs is married to Susan K. Freedman and is the father of Aaron, David and Sarah Jacobs.