Al Benoliel: is the chair of the Cemetery Committee and a member of the funeral committee of the Seattle Sephardic Brotherhood in Seattle, Washington which was established in 1935 to provide cemetery and burial services for its members. This fraternal organization's primary function is to operate a non-profit cemetery and serve its members. A prerequisite for membership in the Brotherhood is membership in one of the two Sephardic synagogues, Sephardic Bikur Holim, whose founders and largest percentage of membership is made up of Ladino speaking people from Turkey, or Congregation Ezra Bessaroth, whose roots are from the Isle of Rhodes.
Al began serving the Seattle Sephardic Brotherhood as a member of the burial committee in the Eighties, and has served as burial chairman, board member, and president. He is currently co-chairman of the burial committee and co-chairman of the cemetery. In addition to his volunteer activities, he earns his living as a licensed funeral director and works for a number of commercial non-Jewish funeral homes, as well as doing behind-the-scenes funeral home service and removal work. He is also a licensed life insurance agent, specializing in Purple Cross prepaid funeral policies.
He has been married to Deanna for 38 years. They have 2 sons, 3 grandchildren,
and one more (Please G-D) due in November. Al is proud of his
Sephardic heritage and is a member of the large Benoliel and Maimon
families. His father, (A"H) traced his Spanish and Portuguese roots to
Spain, then Tetuan, Tangier and Gibraltar.
His maternal grandfather (A"H), Ribi Avraham Maimon was called to move from his native Turkey, to become Rabbi of the then fledgling Sephardic community, in 1924. After his untimely death in 1931, his youngest son, Solomon got his rabbinic ordination from YU and returned to assume the pulpit at Sephardic Bikur Holim in Seattle. He retired several years ago after 40 years of service. Al’s older brother, Rabbi Haim Benoliel is Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Mikdash Melech, a Sephardic Yeshiva in Brooklyn and Jerusalem.
Richard Berger: is the Director of Seattle Jewish Chapel, a funeral home owned by the Bikur Cholim-Machzikay Hadath Congregation.
Bruce Bloom: is the Executive Director of the Southern California Chevra Kadisha Society.
Rena Boroditsky: has been the Executive Director of Winnipeg, Manitoba’s Chesed Shel Emes Funeral Home for 7 years. Established in 1930 as a non-profit organization, the Chesed Shel Emes continues to function as a non-profit community Chevra Kadisha and the Jewish Funeral Home. CSE provides mortuary and taharah services according to Orthodox tradition. Winnipeg has 8 synagogues and four Jewish cemeteries each with a representative on the Board. Chesed Shel Emes has two buildings including a chapel which seats 400, and a second building with a preparation area, a shomer apartment, and offices. They don't own any vehicles, instead using private companies to do pickups and transport to the cemetery.
Ms. Boroditsky has developed and taught adult education classes on the fundamentals of death and burial from a Jewish perspective and taharah training, and has presented at the Annual Palliative Care Conference of Manitoba as well as at the University of Manitoba School of Nursing. Currently, she is compiling a directory of Canadian Chevrei Kadisha, and is developing a model to introduce volunteer Shmira to the Winnipeg community
Libby Bottero: has been a member of Temple Beth Israel's Chevra Kadisha since it was founded by her late beloved Rabbi, Myron Kinberg, z"l, about 20 years ago in Eugene, Oregon. She is a semi-retired RN and has helped care for dying patients.
Anne Brener: Anne Brener is a psychotherapist and lecturer in Los Angeles, where she is a faculty member of the Academy for Jewish Religion and a Rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion. She also is on the faculty of the Mordei Derekh program training Jewish Spiritual Directors. She holds graduate degrees in Jewish Communal Work, Social Work, and Broadcast Communications and will be a third year Rabbinic student at HUC in Los Angeles. Anne is also the author of Mourning & Mitzvah: Walking the Mourner's Path, and excellent guide for the inner work of mourning and has contributed to other books and periodicals on the subjects of Grief and Jewish Spirituality.
Carol Cunradi: was a founding member of Netivot Shalom's Chevra Kadisha in 1991. Her initial training in taharah was acquired by participating in the Beth Jacob Chevra Kadisha in Oakland (Orthodox). She has chaired the women's taharah committee of the Netivot Shalom Chevra, and served as chair of the Netivot Shalom Chevra Kadisha from 1994-1998. Over the past 7 years, she has been a frequent guest speaker on Jewish death and burial customs at the Berkeley Midrasha, a community-wide Jewish high school program. This past year, Carol finished a one-year term as Vice-President of Netivot Shalom. Currently, she is an at-large member of the Netivot Shalom Board of Directors.
Jeff Davidson: is on the Board of Tephereth Israel Synagogue and co-chairs its funeral practices committee. He is a board member of the Jewish Funeral Practices Committee of Greater Washington.
Professor Hasia Diner: is the Paul and Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American Jewish History In the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. She specializes in immigration and ethnic history, American Jewish history and the history of American women. Among other works she has written A Time for Gathering: The Second Migration, 1820-1880 and Lower East Side Memories: The Jewish Place in America and Alternatives to Assimilation: The Response of Reform Judaism to American Culture, 1840-1930, in Shofar (Summer, 1997).
Rabbi Natan Fenner: is on the staff of the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center. He has been involved in chaplaincy and Jewish healing work since 1992 and has a particular interest in Jewish spirituality and meditation, which he has shared through individual encounters, Jewish text study, leadership in congregational settings, and workshops on blessings and healing for a variety of Jewish community groups. Rabbi Fenner has also provided professional support and training to rabbinical students, para-chaplains and other volunteers in the essentials of chaplaincy and visiting the sick.
Rabbi Fenner holds Masters degrees in Community Planning and Hebrew Letters, and he has received specialized chaplaincy training in Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE). He is a board member of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains and has taken part in the American Society on Aging's Forum on Religion, Spirituality and Aging.
Rabbi Fenner is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where he received a certificate in geriatric chaplaincy. He served as the Director of Chaplaincy Services and supervised religious life for the Philadelphia Geriatric Center, a large, Jewish nursing home, independent living, hospital, adult day care, and research complex. Prior to entering the rabbinate, he worked as a community organizer in Chicago, and as Planning and Allocations Associate for the Jewish Community Federation in San Francisco. He also spent two years living in Israel.
Andy Fier: is the Director of Plaza Jewish Memorial Chapel in Manhattan. This funeral home was purchased by a consortium of synagogues, Jewish communal institutions and philanthropists as part of an anti-trust settlement with SCI. He is a Past President of the Jewish Funeral Directors Association.
Rabbi Neil Gillman: is the Aaron Rabinowitz and Simon H. Rifkind Professor of Jewish Philosophy at Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City. He is a native of Quebec City, and graduated from McGill University in 1954, was ordained at JTS in 1960 and received his PhD in philosophy from Columbia University in 1975. Rabbi Gillman's book The Death of Death: Resurrection and Immortality in Jewish Thought, (1997) reviews Jewish teachings about the afterlife from the Bible to today. Rabbi Gillman writes, "To deal with the question of the afterlife means, first of all, to accept the reality of death…. If I never really die, why worry about an afterlife?" "….Only human beings live with the awareness of their death." "How I deal with my death is crucial to how I deal with my life."
One of three regular contributors to the "Sabbath Week" column in the Jewish Week, New York's Anglo-Jewish newspaper, Dr. Gillman is also a contributing editor to Sh'ma, a member of the Commission on the Philosophy of Conservative Judaism that wrote Emet Ve'Emunah, the first statement of principles for Conservative Judaism, and one of the founding scholars of the Abrahamic Accord, an interfaith dialogue program sponsored by the Episcopalian Diocese of Rhode Island.
Rabbi Mel Glazer: is from Beth David Synagogue in Miami, and is a member of the Kavod v'Nichum Board. Rabbi Glazer is a Grief Counselor who helps adults and kids "say goodbye" to people and relationships, which have caused pain. "I love to listen to people who trust me enough to share their stories with me," he says. "I try to listen for hints of connection to important people and places in their lives, because then I can tell what they care about, what they value, what is truly important to them. Stories of death and loss particularly intrigue me, since they continually illuminate the ability of normal people to act with extraordinary devotion and kindness to those whom they love."
Rabbi
Glazer has served congregations in the US, Canada and South Africa. He has been
a staff member at Camp Ramah in the Poconos and Camp Ramah in New England for 19
summers. He has had articles and sermons published in Conservative Judaism and
The American Rabbi. His Doctor of Ministry thesis from
1995was titled The London Ontario Hevra Kaddisha: A Critical Reflection on
the Nature of the Experience To those Who Perform It, which is on the Kavod’V’Nichum
website.
Michael Goldstein: is a member of the Jewish Sacred Society in Burlington, Vermont. He is also a retired Brigadier General.
Rabbi Arnold Goodman: now lives in Jerusalem after 50 years of service in the rabbinate. He is the former President of the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly, and served for 20 years as Rabbi at Ahavath Achim, a Conservative synagogue in Atlanta, for 16 years at Adath Jeshurun in Minneapolis, and for 11 years at Congregation Rodfei Sholom-Oir Chodosh in Chicago. Rabbi Goodman has degrees in both Psychology and Law.
At Adath Jeshurun Rabbi Goodman began discussion of the Chevra Kadisha with his sermon on Rosh Hashana in 1975. Describing himself as a spiritual descendent of Rabbi Gamaliel, he raised the concept of a congregational funeral plan and urged its implementation. Chevra Kavod Hamet, despite opposition from the local funeral homes and from other rabbis, created an alternative for synagogue members to avail themselves of a traditional funeral and burial where members of the Chevra did the tahara and the shmira.
The Chevra Kadisha was the subject of an ABC TV documentary which was followed by Rabbi Goodman's authorship of the 1981 book, A Plain Pine Box. The book, like the traditions it describes, is simple, yet elegant. It details how Rabbi Goodman and his congregation studied traditional Jewish practices and organized the Chevra Kadisha. It explores the struggle between remaining true to Jewish principles and the economic and political pressures of the established Jewish community. Rabbi Goodman, his synagogue and their Chevra Kadisha continue to be an inspiration and a model.
Lynn Greenhough: is a member of the Kavod v’Nichum board and the Program Chair of the 2003 North American Chevra Kadisha Conference. She wrote her Master's thesis “We Do The Best We Can”: Jewish Burial Societies In Small Communities In North America, an historical and ethnographic study of Chevrei Kadisha in Canada and the United States. Ms. Greenhough has officiated at funeral services at Congregation Emanu-El in Victoria, British Columbia and is an active member of the Victoria Chevra Kadisha. She has conducted workshops about the history of Chevra Kadisha practices as well as teaching about taharah.
Sheldon Grosberg: is the Executive Director of the Garden of Remembrance(Gan Zikaron) Memorial Park in Clarksburg, Maryland. He was hired in late 1999 to build and operate a Jewish Community Cemetery for the greater Washington area--an idea promulgated by Washington Hebrew Congregation. Mr. Grosberg has extensive management experience on Capitol Hill, in the Federal government, and in the private sector. He currently serves on the Boards of B'nai Israel Congregation, the Jewish Council on Aging of Greater Washington, the Jewish Social Services Agency, and Mobile Medical Care—and is also past President of Leadership Montgomery, B'nai Israel Congregation, and Treasure Oak Community Association.
Bob Hausman: is Vice-President of Kavod v'Nichum and has been the President of the Jewish Funeral Practices Committee of Greater Washington (JFPCGW) for 25 years. JFPCGW is an umbrella group of over 45 Conservative, Reform, Orthodox and Reconstructionist congregations and havurot in the D.C. area. JFPCGW establishes a contract with local funeral homes for its members, and provides training and resources for bereavement committees and Chevrei Kadisha. JFPCGW is also establishing a Code of Conduct for area cemeteries, and it advocates for consumer protection before area legislatures and regulatory bodies.
Mr. Hausman was one of the founders of the Tifereth Israel Congregation Bereavement committee and Chevra Kadisha, where the JFPCGW began in 1976. His leadership was instrumental in the growth and success of the JFPCGW.
R. Linda Holtzman: is Vice-President of Kavod v'Nichum and Associate Professor of Practical Rabbinics at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC). At RRC, she counsels and supervises students serving congregations, and teaching courses in life cycle, year cycle, homiletics, and contemporary Jewish worship.
She is founder of the Reconstructionist Chevrah Kadisha and co-author of a chapter in Twice Blessed (Beacon Press, 1989). Her connection to the gay and lesbian congregation during the late 1980's helped sharpen her focus on death and mourning issues, and she began to explore ways to expand the availability of Jewish funeral and burial rites and services within the community. As a result, she helped start the Reconstructionist Chevra Kadisha of Philadelphia, which is the progressive Chevra Kadisha in the city. It has served both as a Chevra Kadisha and as a training source for RRC students and local Reconstructionist congregations about Jewish funeral practices.
Rabbi Holtzman was ordained by the RRC in 1979. She served as rabbi to a Conservative congregation in a small town near Philadelphia for six years, after which she began work at RRC as well as a part-time position at Beth Ahavah, the gay and lesbian synagogue in Philadelphia. She received her B.A. and M.A. degrees from Temple University, B.H.L., from Gratz College, and rabbinic ordination from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. She served as Rabbi of Beth Israel Congregation in Coatesville, PA. She was Education Director of Mishkan Shalom, Chestnut Hill, PA from 1994 to 1999.
David Jacobson: is a former SCI employee, and now owns Chicago Jewish Funerals, an independent Jewish Funeral Home. He has been instrumental in the creation of a National Independent Jewish Funeral Directors Association.
Alison Jordan: is a psychotherapist in Berkeley, CA. She holds a B.A. in Anthropology and an M.S. in Clinical Counseling. Previously an oncology nurse, she has focused on the emotional, physical, and spiritual needs of the dying, with particular interest in Jewish responses to illness, healing and death. A lifelong Jewish learner, Alison is a graduate of the Melton Adult School and Israel Seminar, and has had the pleasure of learning at the Beit Midrash - a liberal Yeshivah in Jerusalem.
At Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley she is founding chair of Bikkur Holim as well as the Bereavement Service of the Chevra Kadisha, and has consulted, written and taught on related topics. Alison has been working on a project concerning Viddui, the Deathbed Confessional, which she hopes will be useful for people of diverse sensibilities seeking comfort when death approaches.
David Kaler: is Sales Director at Garden of Remembrance (Gan Zikaron) Memorial Park in Clarksburg, Maryland.
Lisa Kodmur: is Assistant Director of the Kalsman Institute on Judaism and Health of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, a position she has held since the Institute’s founding in 2000. She has worked in healthcare for more than 10 years, in fields including: Medicaid managed care for people with disability and chronic illness; substance abuse services; family planning and women’s health; and HIV/AIDS services. She received her Master of Public Health degree from Boston University, with concentrations in Health Services and Health Law, the latter focusing on issues of religion and medicine. Lisa was formerly the director of a JCC family education program in Los Angeles, worked with a private family foundation making grants to social service agencies, and has consulted with managed care organizations such as Kaiser Permanente (Southern California) and Neighborhood Health Plan (Boston).
Irwin Lapping: is the Cemetery Director of Waldheim Cemetery in Chicago and is the Coordinator of the Jewish Cemeteries Preservation Foundation, which is working to renovate and preserve inactive Chicago area Jewish cemeteries.
Len Lawrence: is the Executive Director of Mount Sinai Memorial Park and Mortuary owned by Sinai Temple of Los Angeles for 39 years. The cemetery has over 300 acres and handles about 1,700 cases a year.
Jan Morrison: is the Cantor and Executive Director at the Columbia Jewish Congregation in Columbia, Maryland.
Rabbi Steven Moss: Rabbi Steven Moss has served B’nai Israel Reform Temple in Oakdale as its Rabbi since 1972. During his years in the rabbinate he has served many hospitals, skilled nursing, and assisted living facilities including Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York Hospital, Southside Hospital, Good Samaritan Hospital, and Brookhaven Memorial Hospital. He was the first Jewish chaplain to Stony Brook Medical Center. Rabbi Moss was the founder of the Jewish Hospice Referral Service and was a chaplaincy supervisor for the New York Board of Rabbis.
He is Past President of the Suffolk County Board of Rabbis and the Sayville Area Clergy Association. Rabbi Moss grew up in Rockaway, New York. He received his undergraduate degree from New York University – University Heights. He was ordained from the Hebrew Union College in 1974, and received his Doctor of Ministry and Doctor of Divinity in 1999 from HUC. He also has an Advanced Certificate in Gerontology from Long Island University.
Rabbi Moss married Judy in 1969. Both of them have been active in the life of their synagogue, which has grown from 40 families to over 400 families during these years with B’nai Israel. He is a student of the Kabbalah and enjoys teaching workshops on this subject, as well as meditation and spirituality. He is most particularly proud of the heritage left to him through the writings of his grandmother’s grandfather, Rabbi Zev Wolf Turbowitz of Kroz, Lithuania. Rabbi Moss is currently working on a book about this great Rabbi of the 19th century.
Armin Osgood: is a member of Ohab Zedek Chevra Kadisha on the Upper West Side of New York City. From Sept. 20, 2001 to April 30, 2002, for 222 days, he coordinated the placement of over 200 shomrim at the medical examiner’s trailer after the attack on the World Trade Center.
R. Joseph Ozarowski: is the Executive Director of the (Orthodox) Chicago Rabbinical Council and administrator of its Bet Din and Chevra Kadisha. His book, To Walk in God's Ways - Jewish Pastoral Perspectives on Illness and Bereavement, is considered a standard in the field of Judaism and pastoral care. He helped start the Lancaster Chevra Kadisha.
Rabbi Ozarowski is active in the field of pastoral care and Judaism. He is the past chair of the Pastoral Care Committee at Franklin Hospital Medical Center, Valley Stream, NY, has been a governing board member of the Metropolitan Coordinating Council on Bikur Holim, and also a member of the New York UJA/Federation task forces on Pastoral Care and Hospice. Most recently he served as Staff Jewish Chaplain at NYU Medical Center.
For the past 22 years, Rabbi Ozarowski has been a pulpit rabbi, educator, author and chaplain. For 12 he has served as the spiritual leader of the Elmont Jewish Center, in Elmont, NY. Rabbi Ozarowski is also the co-author of Common Ground written with a Conservative and Reform rabbi. During his earlier rabbinic positions, he founded the Lancaster (PA) Jewish Day School and co-founded the East Bay (Berkeley-Oakland, CA) Vaad Hakashrut.
Jules Polonetsky: was NYC commissioner for Consumer Affairs and played a key role in SCI divestment of Plaza. He now works for AOL in Virginia as Vice President of Integrity Assurance.
Elyse Rabinowitz: is a member of Beth Jacob Congregation, Mendota Heights, MN and chair of the Chevra Kadisha which was formed 2 years ago. Elyse is also a member of the Adath Jeshurun (Minnetonka, MN) women's Chevre where she has been participating in tahara since the early 90's. Professionally Elyse is a Program Manager for Hadassah Leadership Academy; a Jewish, Zionist and Leadership studies program across the U.S. for new and young leaders of Hadassah. She is married to Jim, and parent of two children, Hannah and Samuel.
Dr. Simcha Paull Raphael: is in private practice as a psychotherapist specializing in bereavement, and works as a spiritual director at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Dr. Raphael received a doctorate in psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco and ordination as a rabbinic pastor from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. Originally from Montreal he and his wife Geela Rayzel now live in Philadelphia. His book Jewish Views of the Afterlife made a significant contribution to reviving our heritage of thought about life after death.
Rabbi Jack Riemer: is a Conservative Rabbi in Boca Raton, Florida. He has been called the Rabbi's Rabbi and the President's Rabbi. With his usual sense of humor, he says he's happy just to be called. He is one of the most prolific rabbinic writers and storytellers of the last 50 years. Rabbi Riemer heads the National Rabbinic Network, which assists and counsels rabbis of all the movements who are going through personal crises. He is the editor of Torah Fax, a resource center for Rabbis.
Rabbi Riemer's poems and prayers, such as A Time For Turning; We Remember Them; and We Cannot Merely Pray, appear in the prayer books of the Conservative and Reform movements in the United States, in Israel and South America.
Rabbi Riemer is the editor of Jewish Reflections on Death (1974), co-editor of Ethical Wills: A Modern Jewish Treasury (1983); co-editor of So That Your Values Live On - Ethical Wills & How to Prepare Them (1991) and the editor of Jewish Insights on Death and Mourning (1995).
Rabbi Jacob
Roja: is a member of ZAKA based in Tel Aviv. ZAKA was
founded in 1995. Its dual mission is to ensure a traditional Jewish burial for
those killed in traumatic situations and to provide emergency medical
assistance.
Ronit Rubin: was
born in Israel, and came to the US with her parents and brothers when she was
young. Her parents were Jewish Educators, and they lived in several places
around the country. Ronit graduated with a B.S. in Education from UNC-Greensboro,
N.C. After graduation she moved to Miami, Florida where she began teaching
Hebrew at Beth Am Day School, and at Temple Samu-El religious school. She still
teaches Hebrew at Beth Am day school, and serves as Cantor at Temple Samu El Or
Olom. She is married to Ross Rubin, and has two wonderful daughters, Melissa is
17, and Michelle is 15.
Ed Sagel: is the General Manager and a licensed Mortician at Edward Sagel Funeral Direction, Inc. and Danzansky-Goldberg Memorial Chapels, Inc. of SCI.
He started Sagel Funeral Direction in 1994 as a "store front" full service funeral home without a chapel and sold the business to SCI in 1996. Ed is married with two children, and has lived in the community since the business started.
Rabbi Robert Saks: is the Associate Rabbi at Columbia Jewish Congregation and at Congregation Bet Mishpacha.
Jane Salk: is the Executive Director of the Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachusetts. JCAM is a unique non-profit Jewish cemetery association that owns and manages 80 cemeteries in the Greater Boston. JCAM provides cemetery management services including finance, maintenance and sales. JCAM rescues abandoned cemeteries, provides maintenance and management contracts with other cemeteries, provides a repository for religious artifacts, and provides genealogical information on burials. Jane has been associated with JCAM since 1991, and she is the association's first full time Executive Director.
Leonard Shwartz: has built, owned and operated motels, manufactured
disposable culture media for hospitals and laboratories, sold and distributed
garbage compaction equipment for a Canadian firm, manufactured spun metal
giftware in the South Bronx, sold cars and bought into and eventually bought out
a car dealership in New Haven, Connecticut. He retired (99%) in 1991.
After many years away from shul, Leonard returned daily to say Kaddish for his father. Wanting to know more about davenning, Leonard applied to, and was accepted, at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1994. However, he found that managing a full course load and commuting, with his home life too difficult. He was granted permission to change his status to part time student, with the understanding that he would no longer be a matriculating student.
In 1995 he attended IMUN, The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism camp for “lay rabbis”. However, even with these studies, he wanted answers. Why this, and why that??
Eventually, (when a new rabbi was hired), Len approached the Rabbi and President with the idea of having an “in house” Chevra Kadisha. In order to get the necessary education, practical experience and guidance, he joined Chevra Kadisha Zichron Shabtai Leib of Greater Bridgeport, led by Rabbi Moshe Epstein. With Rabbi Epstein’s guidance, he feels comfortable and qualified to attempt the formation of a Chevra Kadisha in his own shul.
Dr. David Wachtel: is the Senior Research Associate for Special Collections at the library of the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS). He holds advanced degrees in Medieval History and Jewish Studies from Columbia University. Dr. Wachtel was an Exhibition Curator and author of the accompanying catalog for From This World to the Next: Jewish Approaches to Illness, Death and the Afterlife (1999). Over 400 years of Jewish communal history and practice is beautifully recorded, from the membership plaque of the Chevra Kadisha in 1816 Rome, to an 1867 silver comb and pick; from a page of the 1662 Sefer Minhagim which deals with burial customs, to the 1827 Order of the Burial Service from New York.
An adjunct lecturer of history at Queens College of the City University of New York, he has taught and lectured in the United States, Israel and Europe on a variety of topics in Jewish history and Jewish art, to both the general and academic communities.
Rabbi Simka Weintraub: is the Rabbinic Director of the New York Jewish Healing Center and the National Center for Jewish Healing, both programs of the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services in New York City. The Centers are service, educational, and resource agencies that draw on Jewish tradition and Jewish communal resources to address the spiritual needs of Jews who are ill, their families and friends, caregivers and rabbis, and health care professionals.
Rabbi Weintraub edited the National Center for Jewish Healing's first book, Healing of Soul, Healing of Body (Jewish Lights Publishing, 1994) which is an edition of Reb Nahman of Bratslav's 10 psalms of healing, each retranslated and introduced by a different rabbi from the four denominations of contemporary American Jewish life. He also wrote/edited Guide Me Along the Way: A Jewish Spiritual Companion for Surgery (National Center for Jewish Healing, 2002), which includes stories, psalms, prayers, and guidance for patients, family members, and health care professionals. He has designed and led workshops on Jewish spiritual resources in confronting illness, training seminars for rabbis and health care professionals, and written and lectured widely on the use of traditional texts and rituals for Jewish spiritual healing.
Rabbi Weintraub attended Brandeis University, graduating summa cum laude in 1975 with a double concentration and Honors in Near Eastern/ Judaic Studies and Fine Arts (studio sculpture.) Ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1982, he has worked in a variety of creative Jewish educational settings, serving as classroom teacher and Educational Director of the Society for the Advancement of Judaism (1975-1981), as Coordinator of Project Connect at the 92nd Street 'Y' (1981-1983) and of the Melton Adult Mini-School Project sponsored by the Hebrew University School of Education (1983 - 1985), and on the Faculty of the Abraham Joshua Heschel School in Manhattan (1985-1987.) From 1987 to 1995, he served as the Director of Public Affairs of the New Israel Fund.
Rabbi Weintraub earned a Master's Degree in Clinical Social Work from Columbia University (1983), and is a graduate of the Couples and Family Therapy Program of the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health in New York (1988.) He maintains a private practice in Couples and Family Therapy in Brooklyn, NY, working with couples and families confronting a wide range of issues, including chronic illness, infertility, and bereavement
Rabbi Eric Weiss: is the Executive Director of the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center. He has taught extensively throughout the Bay Area, and has been featured in local and national media. He serves on the board of Camp Tawonga and is a co-founder of "Grief & Growing: A Healing Weekend for Individuals and Families." This weekend camp experience is co-sponsored by Camp Tawonga and Jewish Family and Children's Services. His article, "Passage to Wholeness" was published in Reform Judaism Spring 1998. He holds a Masters degree in Hebrew Letters and was ordained in 1989 from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. In addition to his rabbinic seminary work, he is formally trained in Jewish education, clinical pastoral care and spiritual direction.
He served on the national board of the Central Conference of American rabbis (CCAR), the Reform movement’s national rabbinic body.
He was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He attended the University of California at Santa Cruz where he graduated with honors with a B.A. in Biology and Judaic Studies. He lived in San Francisco and worked in law offices before he entered rabbinic school at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
Chava Weissler: is the Philip and Muriel Berman Professor of Jewish Civilization in the Department of Religion Studies at Lehigh University. In addition to teaching religion courses at Lehigh, Professor Weissler offers Jewish Studies courses at Lafayette College, DeSales University, and Moravian College. She has also taught at the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University. Her areas of specialization include Jewish folklore, modern Judaism, Jewish tradition, Hasidic tales, Jewish mysticism, and women in Jewish history.
She is the author of Voices of the Matriarchs: Listening to the Prayers of Early Modern Jewish Women (Beacon, 1999), the first comprehensive study of women's devotions in Yiddish (tkhines), a nearly lost genre of Jewish literature. The book was awarded the 1999 Koret Foundation Book Award in the category of Jewish History and was praised at the ceremonies as a pioneering work that changed the ways in which scholars think about the role of women specifically, and the common folk in general, in the shaping of the religious life of Judaism. The volume was also a finalist for Gratz College's 2000 Tuttleman Foundation Book Award. Her research was supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Annenberg Research Institute, Harvard Divinity School, and Lehigh University. Weissler serves on the Academic Advisory Board of the Center for Jewish History in New York and is a fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research.
David Zinner: is the Executive Director of Kavod v'Nichum, which he has staffed since its inception. He helps to edit Chevra Kadisha News, manages the web site Jewish Funerals, Death and Mourning and is the Chevra Kadisha Conference coordinator. He researches and writes articles on Jewish traditions around death and dying including Breathing New Life Into Jewish Funeral Practice (1997) and the preface to the second edition of A Plain Pine Box.
Mr. Zinner teaches workshops and provides training and assistance to new and existing Chevrei Kadisha. He has taught about Jewish Funeral Practices at CAJE, in his synagogue and as a guest speaker at synagogues and Chevra Kadisha gatherings around the country. He has worked with Jewish death and dying issues for 10 years. He is the Vice-President of the Jewish Funeral Practices Committee of Greater Washington, has been President of his synagogue, and currently chairs his congregation's Chevra Kadisha.
Dr.
Laurie Zoloth: is
Professor of Bioethics and Humanities at Northwestern University. She is the
former Professor of Social Ethics and Jewish Philosophy and Director of the
Program in Jewish Studies at San Francisco State University.
A
Talmud scholar, storyteller, feminist and Orthodox Jew, her recent article on
Burial Ritual in the Jewish Community, which was included in Medicine and the
Ethics of Care, describes the Taharah as a feminist practice. By
interweaving her first person accounts of Taharah with an intensely
analytical ethical analysis, she provides new insights into the textual basis
and community imperative for treatment of the dead.
Dr. Zoloth is the President of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. She is an advisory board member of the Howard Hughes Medical Research Institute, of the Robert Wood Johnson Project on Excellence at the End of Life, and of the American Association of the Advancement of Science’s Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion.
R. Len Zucker: is the Rabbi at Golden Lakes Temple in West Palm Beach Florida. He is the Co-chair of the Funeral Practices and Cemetery Committee of the Palm Beach County Board of Rabbis, dealing with all cemeteries and funeral directors. R. Zucker is also an attorney.