Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, PhD, a leading voice in the Conservative Movement, follows a tradition of distinguished predecessors on the pulpit at Park Avenue Synagogue, including Rabbi Milton Steinberg, Rabbi Judah Nadich, and Rabbi David H. Lincoln.
Rabbi Cosgrove, who began his tenure at Park Avenue Synagogue in 2008, was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1999 and earned his PhD from The University of Chicago Divinity School. His dissertation on Rabbi Louis Jacobs, a leading Anglo-Jewish theologian of the 20th century, reflects his passion for the intersection of Jewish scholarship and faith.
Rabbi Cosgrove is the author of 15 annual collections of selected sermons and the editor of “Jewish Theology in Our Time: A New Generation Explores the Foundations and Future of Jewish Belief.” He has written essays and op-eds for a variety of Jewish publications, including The Jewish Week and The Forward. He is the author of the 2024 book “For Such a Time as This: On Being Jewish Today.”
Under Rabbi Cosgrove’s leadership, Park Avenue Synagogue seeks to inspire, educate, and support its membership toward living passion-filled Jewish lives. He aspires to make Park Avenue Synagogue a beit tefillah, a beit midrash, and a beit knesset – a house of prayer, learning, and gathering – and a kehillah kedoshah, a holy congregation, where national Jewish conversations are lived.
Rabbi Cosgrove also serves the Conservative Movement, the Jewish community beyond PAS, and the community at large. He sits on the Chancellor's Cabinet of the Jewish Theological Society and on the Editorial Board of Conservative Judaism. A member of the Executive Committee of The Rabbinical Assembly, he is also an officer of the New York Board of Rabbis and a member of the Board of UJA-Federation of New York. He serves as Rabbinical Advisor on Interfaith Affairs for the Anti-Defamation League and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Rabbi Cosgrove also serves on the Board of Trustees of Hillel at the University of Michigan and on the National Board of Governors of Hillel at the University of Pennsylvania.
Rabbi Cosgrove was honored to represent the Jewish community at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum during the visit of Pope Francis in 2015.
Park Avenue Synagogue is honored to have Rabbi Cosgrove, his wife Debbie, and their four children in our community.
Selected Sermons
In the Beginning, 2009
An Everlasting Covenant, 2010
Go Forth!, 2011
Hineni, 2012
A Place to Lodge, 2013
Living Waters, 2014
Stairway to Heaven, 2015
Rise Up!, 2016
A Coat of Many Colors, 2017
Provisions for the Way, 2018
Tree of Life, 2019
Bring Them Close, 2020
And the Bush Was Not Consumed, 2021
An Outstretched Arm, 2022
A Mixed Multitude, 2023
At the Edge of the Wilderness, 2024