Bikur Cholim Conference 2025
INFINITE KINDNESS: HEALING IN THE FACE OF CRISIS, TRAUMA, AND ANTISEMITISM
The past year has brought a variety of crises, that seem to tax our ability to respond, guide and heal. From environmental disasters, to shootings, to rampant antisemitism and just the everyday trauma from our changing world. For us as caregivers, how do we respond to these challenges, preserve our strength and resilience, and deal with problems that can seem overwhelming?
Our programs bring together community leaders, social workers, rabbis, chaplains, and poets to empower caregivers to respond with resilience and compassion and bring our best and whole selves to these often overwhelming situations.
Some of the topics to be addressed include:
- Crisis and disasters and how we respond
- Grapple with trauma and learn what it has to teach us about how we provide comfort under the guidance of trauma informed care
- The epidemic of antisemitism and how to provide comfort for the emotional and mental health challenges
- Providing care for ourselves and others in finding comfort and meaning
The program will end with two sessions dedicated to self-care, using prayer, art and poetry as tools to help heal ourselves and strengthen our resilience and sense of well-being.
The goal of the program is to strengthen our ability to respond as caregivers, build our spiritual and practical toolkits, and make us aware of the new challenges we will continue to face.
Conference Program, Online, on Alternate Mondays
Beginning January 13, 2025
8:00pm – 9:30pm ET • 5:00pm – 6:30pm PT
For volunteers, social workers, chaplains and professionals who work in the field of bikur cholim
(visiting the sick) and the general public
$72 for the full conference program for 7 sessions; $36 for 3 sessions; $18 for a single session
— scholarships widely available — All sessions will be recorded
Questions?
Program Questions: Contact David Balto at david.balto@dcantitrustlaw.com or 202-577-5424
Sponsorship and Registration Questions: Contact david.balto@dcantitrustlaw.com
January 13, 2025
The Evolving Crisis for Jewish Communities and our Response
Eric Fingerhut, President and CEO Jewish Federations of North America
Reuben Rotman, President and CEO, Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies
Rabbi Lynn Liberman, BCC, Interim Co-President, Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains
The continuing effects of the war and the crisis in Israel, environmental disasters, violence, acts of antisemitism are taking an increasing toll on our communities. How do our communities respond to preserve our health and well-being and keep Jewish identity strong. Hear from national community leaders about how we are finding new paths for healing and support.
January 27, 2025
Tools to Grapple with Antisemitism: Preserving our Wellbeing and the Wellbeing of Our Families
Rabbi Rachel Hersch, Community Chaplain, JSSA Rockville, MD
Tricia Stern, Senior Vice-President Clinical Practice, Network of Jewish Health Service Agencies
The past year has seen an epidemic of antisemitism that leads to fear, uncertainty, and division. How do we respond to the emotional turmoil and trauma from antisemitism? How do we help our communities to build strength and resilience?
This session is being held on International Holocaust Memorial Day we will also take time to remember and honor those who were lost.
February 10, 2025
Grappling with Crisis: The Social Worker’s Perspective
Miriam Singer, CEO JCS of South Florida
Geneve Hein, Associate Vice-President, Emotional Well Being, JCFS Chicago
Morgan Zeringue MSW, Director of Program Services, Alexander Jewish Family Services, Houston
Crises, environmental, shootings, and disasters are becoming increasingly common. How do we respond to these crises and provide both practical and emotional care? How do we build the infrastructure to be able to anticipate and respond?
February 24, 2025
Understanding Trauma and Providing Comfort
Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, Author, Wounds into Wisdom
Rabbi Firestone’s Wounds into WisdomWounds into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma has transformed our understanding of the role of trauma and how to seek healing. Trauma is at the core of much of our emotional distress and the forces that weaken and tear apart our communities. How do we recognize the role of trauma in our lives and the lives of the people we care for and how do we find tools to understand trauma so we can be more effective caregivers?
March 10, 2025
Grappling with Crisis: The Chaplain’s Perspective
Rabbi Shira Stern, D.Min., BCC, Disaster Spiritual Care Manager, American Red Cross and Division Advisor for the Northeast; Regional Program Lead, Massachusetts and Northern New England
Rabbi Ziona Zelazo, American Red Cross: Disaster Spiritual Care Supervisor and Regional Program Lead
Chaplains are a part of every disaster relief team. How does spiritual care address the needs of those impacted by disaster? What are the specific spiritual needs of disaster clients and how do we respond in ways that will both comfort and help them build resiliency?
How do we set the stage for communities and individuals to deal with the longer term trauma, after we have left? And what do we bring home after each deployment?
March 24, 2025
Caring for Ourselves and others in the Face of Trauma and Crisis: Prayer
Alden Solovy, Poet and Liturgist
What’s in our tool box to care for ourselves? Prayer comes first and we will be guided by world-renown poet and liturgist, Alden Solovy to find the role of prayer to touch and strengthen our spirits so we can become truly grounded caregivers in the face of these crises.
Our goal is to give each of us a refreshed approach to prayer as a mainstay of our caregiving and self-care.
March 31, 2025
Replenishing the Well: Art & Poetry as Self Care
Rabbi Sara Adler, BCC, Chaplain University of Michigan Health
Rabbi Deborah Schloss, BCC, Chaplain, Michael E. Debakey Veterans Administration Medical Center
We know that the arts, visual and musical, and poetry can refresh the soul and revive our spirits. How can we turn to them at time of stress and crisis. How can art and poetry refresh our beings, strengthen resilience and provide self-care.
How do images in art speak to its viewer—emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually? How do the words of poetry help revive and reawaken us? Time will be given for personal writing, reflection, and sharing.
Conference Speakers
Eric Fingerhut
President and CEO Jewish Federations of North America
Fingerhut was appointed Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents on March 14, 2007 by Governor Ted Strickland. This position is a member of the Ohio Governor’s Cabinet. On February 22, 2011, he submitted his resignation to Gov. John Kasich, effective March 14, 2011, after serving four years of his five-year term. Chancellor Fingerhut earned a reputation as an innovative leader and ardent advocate of the value of higher education. (Wikipedia)
Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, PhD
Author, Psychotherapist, Scholar, Teacher
Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, Ph.D., is an author, Jungian psychotherapist, a leader in the international Jewish Renewal Movement, and a renowned Jewish scholar and teacher. Widely known for her groundbreaking work on Kabbalah, depth psychology, and the re-integration of the feminine wisdom tradition within Judaism, Rabbi Tirzah lectures and teaches internationally about spiritual and ancient wisdom practices that are honed to assist us at this critical time in world history. Her latest work, Wounds into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma (Monkfish, 2019) is the recipient of the 2020 Nautilus Book Award Gold in Psychology and the Jewish Women’s Caucus of the Association for Women in Psychology 2020 book award.
Raised in an Orthodox home in St. Louis, Missouri, Rabbi Tirzah’s spiritual curiosity called her to search beyond the confines of her family’s strict Jewish upbringing. The younger sister of the groundbreaking radical feminist, Shulamith Firestone (The Dialectic of Sex, William Morrow & Co: 1970), Rabbi Tirzah left home to embark upon a life-changing spiritual odyssey, chronicled in With Roots In Heaven: One Woman’s Passionate Journey into the Heart of Her Faith (Dutton, 1998).
Alden Solovy
Liturgist, poet, author, journalist, and educator
Alden Solovy is a Jewish poet and liturgist, a writing coach and an award-winning essayist and journalist. Alden’s writing was transformed by the death of his wife after a fall that resulted in sudden, catastrophic brain injury. He began to explore writing poetry, prayer and meditations as a spiritual practice aimed at a deeper understanding love and loss, joy and sorrow, healing of body and spirit and reconnecting with the divine. His prayers and short fiction have been published in the Jewish and secular press.
Alden has led prayer writing workshops for adults, teens and pastoral care counselors in the United States and in Israel. He’s available to teach, read his work or serve as a liturgist-in-residence.
For information, click on “Hire Me!” Alden made aliyah to Israel in May, 2012, and splits his time between Chicago and Jerusalem. He’s the proud father of two adult daughters, is active in men’s healing work and is an avid hiker in both countries. Alden blogs about men, spirituality, middle age and life in Israel for the Times of Israel.
Reuben D. Rotman
President & CEO, Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies
Reuben D. Rotman is the founding President and CEO of the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies. The Network was established in 2017 as an international membership association, with the mission of strengthening and advancing the Jewish human service sector. Today, the Network serves as the leading voice for the sector; the go-to for best practice research, innovation, and partnerships. Supporting its 170+ member organizations throughout the US, Canada and Israel, the Network’s goal is to strengthen the capacities of its member agencies and to advance the scope and impact of the Jewish human service sector.
Reuben came to the Network having served as the CEO of Jewish Family Service of MetroWest New Jersey, where he held several increasingly responsible positions for 21 years. Previously, Reuben held positions with UJA Federation of New York, Jewish Family Service of Metropolitan Detroit and Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit.
Reuben currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of SourceAmerica, which connects the non-profit sector to the US Federal government and commercial sectors to secure employment opportunities for persons with disabilities, and also serves as the Treasurer of the Board of Directors of Social Current, a recently established national organization which seeks to activate the power of the social sector by bringing together a dynamic network of human service organizations and partners.
Reuben earned two graduate degrees at Brandeis University, a Master of Arts in the Management of Human Services from the Heller School and a Master of Arts in Jewish Communal Service from the Hornstein Program.
Miriam Singer
President & CEO, Jewish Community Services (JCS) of South Florida
As President & Chief Executive Officer, Miriam Singer is responsible for leadership and the success of Jewish Community Services (JCS) – a community-based non-profit social and health services agency serving the South Florida community for over 100 years. Miriam joined JCS in January 2020 and was charged by its Board of Directors to implement a comprehensive strategic transformation of the agency aimed at efficiencies, innovation and fiscal sustainability. With an annual budget and assets of $36,6m and a dedicated, diverse team of 500 professional and support staff, JCS provides 30+ unique social and health service programs. In fiscal year 2021-2022 clients received a broad array of safety-net services.
Singer’s professional experience includes 35 years of service to Miami-Dade County government, where she began her career as a social worker working with survivors of domestic abuse and justice-involved refugees. She has broad experience in direct service delivery, management, and executive operations for human and business services. She developed and implemented justice and community-based programs serving Cuban and Haitian refugees, dual-diagnosis clients, survivors of domestic violence, and gang-involved youth.
Rabbi Lynn C. Liberman, BCC
Board Certified Chaplain, Jewish Family Service of St Paul
Rabbi Lynn Liberman was ordained from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1993. She served as a congregational rabbi for over 20 years.
Currently, Rabbi Liberman is a Board Certified Chaplain working as the Community Chaplain for the Jewish Family Service of St Paul and as an on-call chaplain for Regions Hospital, Gillette Children’s Hospital, and MHealth Fairview Hospitals.
Rabbi Liberman has taught and worked in a variety of educational settings, including Jewish Day Schools and as an Adjunct Lecturer in Judaics at Augsburg College, Minneapolis as well as a faculty member for the Melton Adult Learning Program through Hineni. She also has worked as a Hospice chaplain for seven years including currently as a casual chaplain with Our Lady of Peace Hospice.
Currently she volunteers as a Police and Fire Chaplain for the Mendota Heights/West St. Paul Police and Fire Departments and the Minneapolis State Patrol. Lynn is an ARC Spiritual Care Disaster Responder, is on the Metro CISM Team, is on the Children’s Hospital Ethics Committee and is on the Executive Board of Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains. Lynn is a certified Advanced Care Planner with Honoring Choices.
Sponsored by
Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains, Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies, , The Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services, Kavod v’Nichum, and Jewish Association for Death Education (JADE)
What Is Bikur Cholim?
Definition and History in a jewish context.
Resources
Educational materials from experienced individuals on various topics in visiting the sick.