Rabbi Jan Uhrbach

RABBI JAN R. UHRBACH has been the spiritual leader of our congregation since 1999. In 2007, she assumed the pulpit at the East 55th Street Conservative Synagogue in Midtown New York, creating a new association between the two synagogues. In addition to her congregational work, Rabbi Uhrbach is a well-known teacher of Torah. She is an Adjunct Lecturer of Professional and Pastoral Skills at the Jewish Theological Seminary Rabbinical School, and a member of the Wexner Heritage Foundation faculty. Rabbi Uhrbach has taught and served as scholar-in-residence at the 92nd Street Y, the Skirball Center for Adult Learning, The Women’s League for Conservative Judaism, and many synagogues. Her essays have been published in Conservative Judaism and Sh’ma, and she is the author of an additional Hebrew/English verse for the traditional Shemini Atzeret prayer, “Tefillat Geshem,” which appears in Siddur Ḥadash: A New Siddur for All Festival and Sabbath Services (Media Judaica, 2000). She currently serves on the Maḥzor Committee of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly. Rabbi Uhrbach received her ordination from JTS, where she was a Wexner Graduate Fellow, and the recipient of academic prizes in theology, philosophy, Talmud, and professional skills.

The rabbinate is Rabbi Uhrbach’s second career. A graduate of Yale University (1985) and Harvard Law School (1988), Rabbi Uhrbach served as Law Clerk to Federal District Judge Kimba M. Wood. She then joined the New York law firm of Satterlee Stephens Burke & Burke LLP, where she specialized in media litigation. Rabbi Uhrbach became a partner of the firm in January, 1996.

Photograph by Ellen Fisher Turk.