The Jewish Institute KALLAH

The Center for Studies in Jewish Pastoral Care (CSJPC) is a pastoral education and research center that operates in the context of Jewish traditions and with appreciation for Jewish values. Initially created as The Jewish Institute for Pastoral Care over six years ago the CSJPC is the only academic setting in the country where Jewish CPE is taught by Jewish Supervisors.
The Center functions within the multifaith mission of The HealthCare Chaplaincy and provides formal education and professional credit in clinical pastoral education for Jewish chaplains already in the field, congregational rabbis and cantors, Jewish seminarians, and other Jewish spiritual caregivers. It also offers rabbis, cantors, other spiritual leaders, and concerned congregants a place to study issues of current interest to the Jewish community. The Center offers opportunities for ongoing peer supervision, professional development, and research.

Programs offered include:

Compassionate Jewish Leadership

The Compassionate Jewish Leadership (CJL) course is offered to rabbinic or cantorial students, preferably in their third or fourth year of study, from Yeshiva University, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, The Academy for Jewish Religion, Yeshiva Chovevei Torah and The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. The course focuses on the congregational community and individuals who might become disenfranchised from Jewish congregations. It also offers a respectful space for seminarians, across the Jewish denominational spectrum, to study and learn together.

CJL students are presented with issues such as mental illness and depression, bereavement, infertility and adoption, domestic abuse, substance abuse, unemployment, developmental disabilities, aging, and chronic illness. And each of the 13 sessions includes a didactic and an interactive component. This didactic features a recognized expert in the field and often a person having personal experience with the addressed issue.

A light Kosher buffet is provided during which the participants hold inter-seminary roundtable discussions. Participants who complete the course requirements receive certificates.

Seminary Rotations

Tailored to the needs of each seminary, the Center provides future rabbis and cantors with the opportunity to develop the pastoral care skills they will need as they go forward in their work as clergy within the wider Jewish Community. The experiential mini-course offers a clinical service module at a Manhattan medical center or when possible at a medical center more convenient to the students home, in tandem with a didactic module. These supervised sessions may be integrated within 40 or 60 hours in either a two-week immersion program or a seven-session extended program. Seminary Rotation students generally become familiar with chaplaincy in the context of ‘What do I say after I’ve said ‘Hello?’”, prayer, facilitative listening, suffering, dying, the theology of pastoral care, and defining and adhering to boundary limits. Students are also taught about Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) and the role of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains (NAJC). The course is taught by rabbis who are experienced pastoral caregivers and NAJC Board Certified Chaplains. Participants who complete the course requirements receive certificates


Congregational Kallah and Seminars

The Center for Studies in Jewish Pastoral Care (CSJPC) convenes three Kallot a year, each year offering congregational clergy the opportunity to hone their pastoral care skills in a six-day program or in an intensive 2-day seminar. In the week-long program, participants combine both clinical experience at medical centers in Manhattan and didactic sessions at the Chaplaincy to enhance their understanding of the critical issues facing patients and their families. The week-long experience brings together congregational clergy from the broad spectrum of Jewish traditions across the United States, encouraging them to interact in an educational environment. In past years, we have presented such speakers as Rabbi Abraham Twersky on the subject of addiction, Rabbi Dayle Friedman on eldercare and Cantor Naomi Gross on Hospice, among other scholars.

Together the clergy cover basic principles of professional bikkur holim, in a thematic seminar such as end-of-life issues, aging, and dealing with issues of Mental Health. This is an opportunity for congregational clergy to learn from distinguished scholars and to enhance their pastoral skills as they care for those who are ill and suffering in their home synagogues.

To find out more about the next scheduled CSJPC program, please click here.

For information on any of the programs at The Center for Studies in Jewish Pastoral Care (CSJPC) please contact the following:

The Center for Studies in Jewish Pastoral Care (CSJPC)
307 East 60th Street
(212) 644-1111 ext. 213

Click here for criteria and registration applications.