American chaplains will share expertise on visit to Israeli medical facilities

by Robert Wiener
NJJN Staff Writer

A team of rabbis and healers led by Cecile Asekoff, director of the Joint Chaplaincy Committee of MetroWest and the National Association of Jewish Chaplains, will be heading for Israel later this month to share their skills in ministering to the spiritual needs of the sick, the elderly, and the dying.

From March 28 to 31, the 10-member delegation will visit Israel to meet with some 30 people who are seeking the special training in clinical pastoral education that American chaplains receive for certification at hospitals, hospices, nursing homes, and prisons.

“Israel is a lot younger country than ours,” said Asekoff. “It doesn’t have the experience with chaplaincy that we do here in America.”

While every Israeli hospital has a rabbi assigned through the official rabbinate, their role is limited, she said.

“The job of that person is to ensure the kashrut of the facility and to be involved in any ritualistic aspects that may take place in the facility,” she told NJ Jewish News. “However, the role of chaplain and pastoral caregiver or spiritual caregiver as we know it here does not exist in Israel, and it is sorely needed.”

The delegation will travel to facilities in different parts of Israel, cramming a lot of programs and activities into a short amount of time.

“One day we will spend with our colleagues at their facilities in local long-term care facilities and at various hospitals. We will be shadowing them, learning what they do, seeing what they need and how we can be helpful, and also expanding our own knowledge. The final half-day will be spent on next steps — what can we do to help them,” said Asekoff.

One special area of concern is the large population of aging Holocaust survivors in need of chaplains’ services.

“They are now nearing the ends of their lives,” said Asekoff. “There are things that typically happen to elderly survivors that have to be addressed in a spiritual way. There is guilt about their survival, and there are those who…revert back to earlier times in their lives. They have fear and fright of strangers,” she said.

Asekoff insisted that her delegation will not be “ugly Americans who are saying ‘Look what we have.’ We want to help facilitate the development of pastoral/spiritual care in Israel in their venue and in their language. Our presentations will be in Hebrew. Our registrations were in Hebrew. We want to facilitate a homegrown product there.”

“We would like to organize the Israelis so they will get the appropriate publications, the appropriate reading material, and the appropriate education,” said Asekoff. “Ultimately, we hope to place caregivers and chaplains in places throughout Israel so they will become part of the healing team and process.”

Asekoff said the mission “will expose the average Israeli, religious or not religious, to a segment of the healing team on a spiritual level they would never have come in contact with otherwise. I believe it will open up the opportunity for understanding of people who never ever get together.”

The chance to export the art and science of chaplaincy to Israel is an idea Asekoff has been nurturing for the past 10 years, through meetings in Israel and the United States.

“My dream and my idea have some value because other people are now seeking it out,” she said. “This conference is exciting. It is exhilarating. It is thrilling. It gives me the opportunity to bring together in Israel people from various groups who would never come together or sit together — but now they are coming.”

Robert Wiener can be reached at rwiener@njjewishnews.com.