When we are facing health and healing challenges, community and tradition are two of the resources we call upon in Jewish life. I learned this lesson of community and tradition most profoundly from a colleague and mentor, Rabbi Simkha Weintraub, rabbinic director of the National Center for Jewish Healing. It forms the foundation of our Jewish Community Chaplaincy program in Kansas City, of which I have the privilege of serving as Kansas City’s Jewish Community Chaplain.

Both the keva (framework) and kavannah (intention) of the Chaplaincy program reflect these two tablets of the Jewish spiritual care “covenant.” When faced with a life crisis, like a healthcare challenge, many of us feel isolated and disconnected from the Jewish community and tradition. We might need spiritual counseling but may have no rabbi or congregation to call on for support. In particular, Jewish older adults, who make up the majority of Jewish people in hospitals and eldercare centers, feel isolated from the organized Jewish community.

The Chaplaincy program speaks to the spiritual needs of those in crisis. We are part of lives in moments of profound difficulty and transition, from guiding the adult child of middle aged-parents through the family dynamics around coping with serious illness to supporting a middle-aged woman through treatment for a life-threatening illness. And other situations include praying with an elderly man before he dies, chanting Kol Nidre at the bedside of a patient receiving home hospice care, comforting a parent whose middle-aged daughter died suddenly, counseling a young person who attempted suicide and providing support to that person’s family.

Our spiritual care volunteer program enables us to touch the lives of more than 1,700 individuals each year. Spiritual care volunteers are lay members of virtually all of the area congregations trained to visit Jews who are sick and isolated. These volunteers provide a range of Jewish spiritual care in the healthcare community that would otherwise simply not be possible.

I consult regularly with hospitals and eldercare centers about specific patients and their needs, and answer questions regarding how best to serve their Jewish patients and residents. The Chaplaincy Program has become a vital resource for area health care institutions, helping them be more culturally sensitive to Jewish concerns and providing spiritual comfort in dealing with disease and death. I also educate staff and patients at health care institutions around these issues, and we use a booklet entitled “Circle of Healing” that we leave with Jewish patients and residents to aid in the spiritual healing process.

In the traditional Jewish prayer for healing, we ask for a refuah shleima — refuat hanefesh u’refuat haguf, a spiritual healing as well as a physical healing. We know that people are multi-dimensional, with all of the different dimensions of our humanity constantly interacting in a dynamic way — emotionally, physically, socially, psychologically and spiritually.

So in order to talk about a “complete healing,” we must relate to all of these dimensions, emphasizing the spiritual dimension as the realm where the meaning is created and developed. The Jewish Community Chaplaincy Program is a powerful expression of the commitment of the greater Kansas City Jewish community, under the auspices of Jewish Family Services, to do just that.

We are grateful for core funding of the program that comes from the Jewish community, through the support of the Menorah Legacy Foundation, the Jewish Community Foundation, the Jewish Heritage Foundation and the Jewish Federation. We are thankful for additional financial support from six major area healthcare institutions.

With blessings of peace and wholeness — shalom.

Rabbi Jonathan Rudnick, the Jewish Community Chaplain, can be reached at 913-915-7730 or at .

Communitywide Healing service
just around the corner

The Jewish Community Chaplaincy program of Jewish Family Services is hosting a healing service at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 6, at Village Shalom.

The service will be conducted by Linda Sweenie, music director at Congregation Beth Torah, Jewish Community Chaplain Rabbi Jonathan Rudnick and Rabbi David Glickman, senior rabbi of Congregation Beth Shalom, who will be the special guest facilitator.

The healing service is free and open to the entire community, regardless of one’s level of observance. A light nosh will precede the service and sweets will be provided afterward. The healing service will feature both traditional liturgy and contemporary readings and music.

Reservations are requested for the healing service and should be made by calling JFS at 913-327-8250 or sending an email to .