First woman in Connecticut to serve a synagogue as Associate Rabbi and first to have an extended tenure as rabbi of her own congregation.

Jody Cohen was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey. She received her B.A. in Political Science from Mt. Holyoke College and her M.A. in Hebrew Letters from Hebrew Union College. She was ordained a rabbi in May of 1984. Jody came to Connecticut in 1984 to serve as Associate Rabbi and Educator to the Congregation Beth Israel in West Hartford. When she begin this position she was also the new mother of a five month old, for whom her husband was the primary caregiver. While there, she established Noah's Ark Day Care Center which was the first synagogue-run day care center in North America for children ages 6 weeks to 5 years.

She authored an article on Noah's Ark, which was published in Compass Magazine, and she has spoken nationally on this subject. Jody was the first recipient of the Hartford College for Women's Pioneer Woman Award (1985), organized the first Conference for Clergywomen of Greater Hartford (1986), and was co-president of the Women's Rabbinic Network from 1991-1993, a national organization of reform women rabbis. She became Rabbi of her own congregation, Temple Beth Hillel, South Windsor, in 1989.

In February of 1993, Jody co-led an interfaith tour to Israel with a local minister, and in March of 1993, she hosted the first AIDS interfaith healing service at a synagogue in Greater Hartford. Rabbi Cohen served at the temple in West Hartford until 1989. From 1989 to the present she has served as solo rabbi and educator for the Temple Beth Hillel in South Windsor. She is married to Moshe Cohen-Gavarian and has two sons. She currently lives in Florida and serves the regional director of the Southeast Council, Union of American Hebrew Congregations.