Clergy

Synagogue Life:

Rabbi Fersko describes herself as a life-long “synagogue Jew.” She loves sitting on the floor with children and teaching them the Shema for the very first time just as deeply as she loves standing on the bimah to preach an urgent moral message. Being with Jews in sickness and in health, studying Torah together, leading communal prayer each week, and exposing someone to a transformative Jewish teaching are the parts of the rabbinate that give her life purpose and meaning.

Before joining The Village Temple, Rabbi Fersko served as Associate Rabbi at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York City. There, she created Shabbat After Dark, which became the largest and longest-running millennial engagement program of its time. She also oversaw a groundbreaking initiative to integrate Israeli families into synagogue life, building meaningful bridges between American and Israeli Jewish communities.

For Rabbi Fersko, synagogue is not just a place—it is the beating heart of the Jewish people, and the most powerful vehicle for spiritual depth, community, and continuity.

Civic Leadership:  

Rabbi Fersko is deeply engaged in civic life and public leadership in New York City. She proudly serves on the Board of Governors of the New York Board of Rabbis, the largest interdenominational rabbinic body in the world. In this role, she works closely with elected officials, policy makers, law enforcement, and rabbis across every denomination to address pressing moral and social issues.

Additionally, Rabbi Fersko serves on the Board of UJA-Federation of New York, the largest Jewish philanthropy in the world. She frequently represents the Jewish community in partnership with the New York City Mayor’s Office and the Governor’s Office, working to diminish hate, build coalitions, and promote tolerance.

Since October 7th, UJA-Federation has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to combat antisemitism, rebuild communities in Israel, support Israeli civil society, and provide critical relief. Rabbi Fersko’s leadership has helped elevate Jewish values into the public square with courage, clarity, and compassion.

Advocating for Women: 

A passionate advocate for women and girls, Rabbi Fersko is a former National Vice President of the Women’s Rabbinic Network, representing over 700 female rabbis throughout North America. There she advocated for pay equity, fought for greater maternity leave, and found strategic ways to advance women’s rabbinic voices in the public sphere. She continues to serve as a mentor for emerging female rabbis. 

Rabbi Fersko participated in the inaugural cohort of the Shalom Hartman Institute Fellowship Created Equal: Gender and the Ethics of Shared Leadership, deepening her work at the intersection of gender, leadership, and Jewish thought. 

In March 2024, Rabbi Fersko addressed the crowd in front of UN Women’s headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, joined by hundreds of protesters on International Women’s Day chanting “Bring Them Home Now!” and calling attention to the plight of 19 Israeli women still held hostage by Hamas following the October 7th attack. During the rally, she declared: “The cry of ‘Bring Them Home’ has become like the ‘Shema’ for our people…It is our mantra, our demand and our desperate hope.” To confront the rupture between feminism and Judaism after October 7th, Rabbi Fersko co-created Modern Jewess, a national monthly print publication dedicated to elevating the voices and leadership of Jewish women.

In response to the Syrian refugee crisis in 2017 Rabbi Fersko created and led a mission to Greece which focused on supporting female refugees, their children and unaccompanied minors. There she raised money, provided supplies and modeled moral leadership and advocacy in the face of vulnerability and displacement. 

Rabbi Fersko is proud that through her synagogue leadership she has raised a generation of Jewish children who never have to ask if a woman can be a rabbi.

Fighting Antisemitism: 

Rabbi Fersko has been preaching and teaching about antisemitism for fifteen years.  Overtime, congregants began to share more and more troubling stories of discrimination and bias, and yet there was no national conversation about antisemitism at the time. When, in 2020, her synagogue was attacked with a baseball bat, Rabbi Fersko was compelled to take her message beyond the walls of the congregation and write her debut book, We Need to Talk About Antisemitism (Seal Press/Hachette).  Her painfully prescient book was published in August of 2023, two months before the massacre of October 7th.  As a professional public speaker, Fersko went on to tour the country - speaking in over 40 venues within and beyond the Jewish community including the 92Y, Yale University (where she was protested against and escorted out by police), The Jewish Museum, and proudly served as the keynote speaker for the annual Jewish War Veterans conference.  We Need to Talk About Antisemitism was celebrated as “eye-opening and thought-provoking” by Kirkus Reviews, named Most Timely and Important Book by Zibby Media, selected as part of the Jewish Book Council’s annual book club guide, and endorsed by trailblazing Jewish thinkers including Natan Sharansky and Matti Friedman.  Rabbi Fersko has published widely on antisemitism including as a contributor to the USA Today Bestselling book, On Being Jewish Now (Zibby Media 2025).

Speaking Publicly:

Rabbi Fersko is a nationally recognized public voice on Judaism, antisemitism, zionism, gender, and contemporary Jewish life. She is a frequent contributor to mainstream media and the Jewish press, and her commentary has been cited in The New York Times, Variety, Forbes, the NYPost, The New Yorker, USA Today and Time Magazine and more. She is regularly sought after for interviews, panels, and podcasts, including public conversations with thought leaders such as Professor Shai Davidai and Zibby Owens.

Rabbi Fersko uses her public voice as the host of two podcasts with Tablet Magazine — Re-Form: Examining the Challenges and Choices of America's largest Jewish movement and How to Be a Jew — a popular arts and culture podcast. 

In addition to media work, Rabbi Fersko plays an active role in global religious dialogue. She was selected to participate in the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC) in Oxford, England, where she was the official representative of the Central Conference of American Rabbis in its dialogues with the Vatican, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and the World Council of Churches. Her work in this arena advances understanding between faith traditions and brings a proud Jewish voice into international conversation.