Rabbi

Rabbi Esther Reed is thrilled to be joining Congregation B’nai Tikvah as their first female rabbi. A local girl, she grew up in East Brunswick, NJ. She attended Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, graduating cum laude with a degree in Judaic Studies. She spent the following year working at Tufts University Hillel, where she fell in love with Hillel work and affirmed her decision to become a rabbi. She then began her studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, a Conservative rabbinical school. She received both rabbinic ordination and a master’s degree in Jewish women’s studies from JTS in 2001. While at JTS, Rabbi Reed was a recipient of the prestigious Wexner Graduate Fellowship. She worked at Rutgers Hillel for 25 years before taking on the role of rabbi at Congregation B’nai Tikvah. In October 2022, she testified about antisemitism on campus before a US House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security.