Rabbi Lawrence Troster is the Rabbinic Director of J Street, and one of this country’s leading Jewish eco-theologians and religious environmental leaders. He is the former director of the GreenFaith’s Fellowship program. He was also the Rabbinic Scholar-in-Residence of GreenFaith the interfaith environmental coalition in New Jersey. Rabbi Troster was also the Rabbinic Advisor for Hazon and Rabbinic Fellow for the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL). Rabbi Troster recently became a regular contributor to Huffington Post, and he has published numerous articles and has lectured widely on eco-theology, bio-ethics, and Judaism and modern cosmology.

His most recent publication is Mekor Hayyim: A Source Book on Water and Judaism (United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, 2012).

He received his B.A. from the University of Toronto and his M.A. and rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary. He was recently given an honorary Doctor of Divinity by JTS for his more than 25 years of rabbinic service. He is also pursuing a D. Min. in Ecological Ministries at Drew Theological School. Rabbi Troster was recently honored by the Temple of Understanding, one of the oldest worldwide interfaith organizations, as an Interfaith Visionary.

Rabbi Troster has been the Jewish Chaplain of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson and an Associate of Bard’s Institute of Advanced Theology and Advisor to Students and Adjunct Lecturer the Rabbinical and Graduate Schools of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and has taught at Hebrew Union College, the Academy for Jewish Religion and Drew Theological School. He also served as the rabbi of several congregations in New Jersey and Toronto, Canada.

He is a member of the Board of Directors of CrossCurrents and for over twenty years was a member of the editorial board of the journal Conservative Judaism.

Rabbi Troster has appeared on television and radio and in newspapers. In May 2005 presented a paper at a UNEP conference in Tehran, Iran.