What does the Jewish future need from its rabbis? Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove and Jon Frankel are joined by Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein of Atra: Center for Rabbinic Innovation to explore the calling, challenges, and realities of rabbinic leadership today—and what it will take to cultivate the next generation of spiritual leaders.
What does the future of rabbinic leadership look like—and why does it matter for all of us?
In this episode of Common Faith, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove and journalist Jon Frankel take on a question hiding in plain sight: Are we cultivating enough rabbis to meet the spiritual, communal, and moral needs of the Jewish future? Joined by Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein, Executive Director of Atra: Center for Rabbinic Innovation, the conversation moves from personal calling to systemic challenge.
Drawing on Atra’s landmark national study, Rabbi Epstein shares eye-opening data about the rabbinic pipeline—who is becoming a rabbi, who isn’t, and why. Together, they explore the realities of rabbinic life today: meaningful work, burnout, blurred boundaries, financial barriers, and the changing ways people seek connection, guidance, and faith.
Along the way, the episode weaves together humor, heart, and hard truths—asking what it means to serve, to lead, and to pass sacred tradition from one generation to the next in a rapidly changing world. In a time when so many are searching for meaning, this conversation reminds us why spiritual leadership still matters—and what it will take to sustain it.
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Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove:
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Park Avenue Synagogue
https://www.pasyn.org