Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein is the Executive Director of Atra: Center for Rabbinic Innovation.
Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein is the Executive Director of Atra: Center for Rabbinic Innovation, which equips rabbis, and the ecosystem that supports them, to grow, adapt, and lead the Jewish people in a rapidly changing world.
Atra launched out of a successful pilot project for rabbis at Hillel International’s Office of Innovation (now Assembly) when Rabbi Epstein became founding Executive Director in 2019. Under her leadership the organization has trained and supported more than 850 working rabbis across every denomination, published groundbreaking research on rabbinic leadership, and become a platform for advancing the ecosystem of rabbinic leadership by working with seminaries and organizations across the field.
Before Atra, Rabbi Epstein served as Executive Director of the 14th Street Y in Manhattan and on the faculty of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. She publishes and teaches widely in the Jewish community.
Rabbi Epstein received her BA from Wesleyan University, studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and received her rabbinic ordination and MA in Religious Education from HUC-JIR. She lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with her husband, Dr. Jason Epstein, and their dog, enjoying that an empty nest still only means between school vacations.