We are delighted to announce that Rabbi Lori Koffman will be joining the Park Avenue Synagogue team in July as our Director of Content and Innovation (DCI). Rabbi Koffman joins us after a successful career spanning both the private equity and rabbinic worlds, and brings to PAS her proven leadership, entrepreneurial spirit, and excellence in vision, strategy, and execution. Working closely with Rabbi Cosgrove, Rabbi Koffman will be responsible for leading the Adult Education and Synagogue Programming team to ideate, inspire, expand, and implement all adult education and cultural programming. Given the growth of engagement in our education programs over the past year, this will be more important than ever as we embark on providing excellence in a both a physical and digital world.
Rabbi Koffman is currently the Director of Engagement and Innovation at the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. Prior to this, she was the Director of Congregational Support and Adult Education at Central Synagogue, where she developed educational, social, and issue-based programs with an emphasis on building connection and community among members. Rabbi Koffman also served as the inaugural Director of Community Engagement at Bet Torah in Mt. Kisco and launched Mamash, a non-profit focused on increasing engagement of unaffiliated Jews. Previously in her career, Rabbi Koffman co-founded and served as a Managing Director of Solera Capital, a female-owned, mission-driven private equity firm, and held senior positions at both CIBC Capital Partners and Lehman Brothers.
Rabbi Koffman graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Tufts University, holds a Master of Arts degree in Political Science from University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, Rabbi Koffman received an MA in Midrash and her Rabbinic Ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary.
We want to thank our Search Committee: Cantor Schwartz, Rabbi Zuckerman, Liz Offenbach, Zawnia Dehaney, Erica Friedman, Andrew Siegel, and Jeff Silverman. The committee considered candidates from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences in order to find someone with the proven ability to set and achieve an ambitious programming vision, as well as a dynamic, positive, and results-oriented personality, with a strong Jewish knowledge and sensibility. We are thrilled that we found all of this and so much more in Rabbi Lori Koffman!
We look forward to welcoming Rabbi Koffman to the PAS community this summer and know that she will take our already strong foundation of classes and programming to even greater heights.
B’shalom,
Rabbi Cosgrove
Nan Rubin, Officer and Search Committee Co-Chair
Stacie Schapiro, Advisory Council and Search Committee Co-Chair