Spotlight on CLAL
Welcome to Spotlight on CLAL. Here you will find stories about what is happening at CLAL and about the work that CLAL is doing across North America. Sometimes we will focus on a program, or a special event, or upon a CLAL faculty member's work and interests. Bookmark this page if you want to get to know us better.
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Jewish Healing: Mining The Tradition For Its Wisdom
By Judy Epstein, Director of Public Affairs
In May, Rabbi Tsvi Blanchard, Ph.D., CLAL’s Director of Organizational Development and a leader in the Jewish healing movement, participated in an innovative conference entitled “Mining the Jewish Tradition for its Healing Wisdom” in Scottsdale, Arizona. The program brought together rabbis, communal leaders, educators, and healthcare professionals to look at the link between healing and Jewish wisdom. The use of ancient texts, literature, poems, and a variety of other sources were drawn upon as tools for healing work and spiritual growth.
"Jewish tradition offers an enormous amount of insight for health, healing, and coping with serious illness,” said Rabbi Blanchard, who led a session on the importance of reaching out – a concept grounded in the Talmud. “By using the wealth of Jewish resources, we can bring new approaches to helping patients, their families, and even health care professionals with the psychological and spiritual issues of life’s difficult questions.”
More than 300 people attended the three-day event. Guest speakers included Rabbi Elliot Dorff, University of Judaism in Los Angeles; Dr. Arnold Eisen, Stanford University; Dr. Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, HUC-JIR/Los Angeles; and Dr. Arthur Green, Brandeis University.
"Jewish texts recognize the pain of human mortality and show us that loving solidarity helps us to live though what we must endure,” said Rabbi Blanchard. “People want to deal with illness in a way that is more than just ‘take two aspirin.’ ”
Rabbi Blanchard pointed out that CLAL, with its reputation for making Jewish thought relevant to contemporary issues, was at the forefront of the Jewish healing movement back in the early 1990’s. It developed a curriculum which was widely taught, and sponsored five national conferences held around the country.
Most recently, CLAL published a new guide to palliative care entitled Embracing Life & Facing Death, written by Rabbis Daniel Brenner, Tsvi Blanchard, and Brad Hirschfield, and Joseph J. Fins, M.D., Director of Medical Ethics at the New York- Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center. Acclaimed by Senator Joseph Lieberman in the Preface, the book is described as a key addition to the palliative care movement.
“Mining the Jewish Tradition for its Healing Wisdom” was sponsored by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Kalsman Institute on Judaism and Health, and Temple Chai of Phoenix - Deutsch Family Shalom Center.
For more information about CLAL's new guide to palliative care, Embracing Life & Facing Death, click here.
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