Our Rabbi

Rabbi Crespy has served on numerous committees of the Rabbinical Assembly (RA) since her ordination, including the Membership Committee, the Humash Reading Committee and the Joint Commission on Placement. She also worked with the RA as Secretary to the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards. Her four years as a JTS Rabbinic Fellow were spent providing adult education in many venues on the full breadth of Judaism. During her time with the RA Committee on Law and Jewish Standards, Rabbi Crespy learned some of the intricacies of interpreting Jewish law for the Conservative Movement in our time.

Rabbi Melissa Crespy was a congregational rabbi for nine years before moving to the JTS.

She first served as Assistant Rabbi at the Park Avenue Synagogue in New York City for two years, where she taught Talmud and Introduction to Judaism to adults, and also ran a welcoming Learner’s/Havurah Service.

She then served as Rabbi at New Yorks Conservative Synagogue of Fifth Avenue for four years. Her passions there continued to be in adult teaching and creating a Friday evening Learner’s Service. She also deeply enjoyed her interfaith work as a member of the Greenwich Village Ministerium, and as a member of the Board of Governors of the Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing.

Her next three years were spent in Port Chester, New York, where she enjoyed introducing a comprehensive adult education program to the congregation, including new celebrations of TuBishevat, Shavuot and Simhat Torah.

Before entering the rabbinate, Rabbi Crespy worked as a credit analyst for Manufacturers Hanover Trust, and earned an MBA in Finance and International Business from New York University. She earned her B.A. with honors in French Literature and Modern Languages from McGill University, and has also attended the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Universite Lavel in Quebec City, and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales in France.

As she begins her position as spiritual leader of the Lakeland Hills Jewish Center, Rabbi Crespy also begins teaching Bible and Rabbinic Literature to the 7th and 8th graders at the Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County!

Rabbi Crespy is married to Larry Kaufman, and they are the proud parents of Avigdor Natan, affectionately known as Avi (8), and Netanya Davida, loving known as Netanya (4).