The first woman rabbi to serve in Berlin since Regina Jonas, Gesa Ederberg has played an essential role in restoring Jewish life in Germany. Born a Lutheran, Ederberg first visited Israel at age thirteen and slowly fell in love with Judaism. She earned a degree in physics in Berlin while studying Protestantism and Judaism, studied religion at Hebrew University in Israel and the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York before converting in 1995. She returned to Berlin, where she taught Hebrew school at the Oranienburger Strasse Synagogue before earning ordination from the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem in 2003. She was the spiritual leader of the Jewish community in Weiden, Bavaria until 2007, when she was hired as rabbi at the prestigious Oranienburger Strasse Synagogue, where she had previously taught. In 2006 she helped found the European Rabbinical Assembly of Masorti/Conservative Rabbis and as of 2016 continues to serve as its executive vice president and treasurer. She was also a founding member of the General Rabbinic Conference of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. In 2014 she began supervising mentorships for the new Conservative seminary in Berlin, the Zacharias Frankel College.