About the Director

Rabbi Dayle A. Friedman, MSW , MAJCS, BCC

Rabbi Dayle Friedman is the founding director of Hiddur: The Center for Aging and Judaism. Rabbi Friedman has long pioneered spiritual work with the elderly. As founding director of Chaplaincy Services at Philadelphia Geriatric Center, she oversaw the Jewish life and pastoral care of the Center’s 1000 tenants and residents. Rabbi Friedman created the first clinical training program in aging for rabbinic and cantorial students, and has mentored clergy from the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements.

Rabbi Friedman edited Jewish Pastoral Care: A Practical Handbook from Traditional and Contemporary Sources (Jewish Lights, 2001; second edition, forthcoming, 2005), a groundbreaking compilation of theory, theology and practice. A founding member of both the National Association of Jewish Chaplains and the Forum on Religion, Spirituality, and Aging, she has published widely on aging, spiritual care and healing in popular publications.