Israelis explore diversity on visit to area hospital
UJC effort promotes pluralism with tours of American settings
, NJJN Staff Writer | 04.03.08

Israelis representing a spectrum from secular to Orthodox visited the area March 27 to sample the smorgasbord of religious diversity in a suburban New Jersey Jewish community.

	Visitors from Israel join a discussion of religious pluralism in the chapel at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston. Photos by Robert Wiener

Among the 14 visitors: rabbis and teachers, a psychologist and a social worker, a journalist and a gynecologist.

They came together from different parts of Israel in a program called Gvanim B’Yachad, which means "Shades Together."

Their meeting in the chapel of Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston was coordinated by the Religious Pluralism Subcommittee of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ and was part of a daylong venture in religious pluralism.

The visitors toured the Leon & Toby Cooperman JCC, Ross Family Campus, in West Orange and Temple B’nai Or in Morristown, exploring a Jewish mosaic that contrasts with the Israeli reality, where "religious" and "secular" are often regarded as the two main groupings of Jews.

The goal "is to make the Gvanim participants aware of the different ways Jews identify," said Jay Weiner, the planning associate at UJC MetroWest who coordinated their visit.

	Cecille Asekoff, right, director of the Joint Chaplaincy Committee of MetroWest, says chaplains help people "walk through any difficult times within their lives." Listening are Rabbis Zvi Karpel and Bonita Taylor.

The hospital visit was intended to demonstrate how religious diversity is reflected in healthcare settings.

Diane Klein, UJC MetroWest assistant director of planning and allocations, opened the discussion with a graphic hypothetical.

"When, for instance, a 15-year-old boy comes into a hospital having been in a car accident, the chaplain doesn’t turn to him and say, ‘So, are you a Reform Jew? Orthodox?’ No," she said, "the chaplain has to quickly find out where the person is coming from and meet him at that point in the patient’s spirituality."

Rabbi Bonita Taylor, who trains chaplains as associate director of the Center for Clinical Pastoral Education in New York, said their professional ethics require "respect for the cultural and religious values of the client."

The center insists that chaplains "refrain from imposing their own beliefs upon the client. Notice that it does not say anything about being the ‘kosher police’ or the ‘Shabbat or holy day guardians,’" she said.

Instead, Taylor said, the job of a professional chaplain is "to keep the existential anxiety that confronts those who are vulnerable and compromised, to put a person and their religious beliefs first, even if and when they are not in alignment with our own."

Cecille Asekoff, director of the Joint Chaplaincy Committee of Metro West and coordinator of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains, also emphasized that a chaplain’s goal is not to impose his or her beliefs.

"We’re not interested in where someone is theologically," she said. "That is not our business. We’re interested in where a person is in a human sense and how we meet them where they are and help them walk through any difficult times within their lives."

Orly Kenneth, the Israeli director of Gvanim B’Yachad, asked if the chaplain’s role is not "theological," why have a religious person perform the function in the first place?

	Rabbi Daniel Zucker explains a point about pluralism to Avner Shiftan, a gynecologist from the Upper Galilee.

"I thought your job creates a clash between your personal identities and your profession," she said. "I have come to realize you put your personal identity aside and you talk to a person on a personal level.

"Why can’t you be just people?" Kenneth asked.

Rabbi Taylor was quick to respond.

"When I walk in the room and I am identified as a religious professional, in the mind of the patient or the client I am presenting God or representing God for someone who may not know that God can be in the hospital or the nursing home. When a social worker walks in the room, that doesn’t happen."

Tova Avihai-Kremer, an elementary school principal who volunteers at the cancer ward of Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, seconded Taylor’s remarks.

"I do not have the authority, but it helps when you are a rabbi," she said. "You represent a spirituality that I have to work much harder at to make happen."

Also joining the discussion at Saint Barnabas were Rabbi Zvi Karpel, a chaplain at the hospital and at Daughters of Israel nursing home in West Orange; the Rev. Thomas Craig, a Presbyterian minister who directs the pastoral care department at the hospital; Pearl Lebovic, an Orthodox rebbitzin and a chaplain at Mountainside Hospital in Montclair and Morristown Memorial Hospital; and Rabbi Daniel Zucker, chaplain for the Jewish Community Housing Corporation.

Local stories posted courtesy of the New Jersey Jewish News