Abramson Center for Jewish Life

The Stern Rabbinic Internships at the Abramson Center for Jewish Life offer RRC students a clinically supervised opportunity to build skills, self-awareness, and sensitivity to the needs of frail elders and their families. Supervised by Abramson Director of Chaplaincy Services, Sheila Segal, BCJC, interns learn through

• Providing pastoral care to frail elders and their family members
• Leading Shabbat and holiday celebrations on nursing home units and in the Center’s synagogue
• Reflecting on their work in individual and group clinical supervision

Jewish Family and Children’s Services

In the Carpenter Rabbinic Internship Program, RRC students serve elders and others in need. Working alongside clinical social workers, Carpenter interns have varied caseloads, including counseling, pastoral visits with homebound elders and teaching in JFCS’s program in Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities. Supervised by RRC graduate Rabbi Elisa Goldberg, BCJC, director of JFCS’ Joan Grossman Center for Chaplaincy and Healing, the Carpenter Rabbinic Internship program enables students to build pastoral skills while accompanying elders living in the community.

Other Internships for Our Students

Martin’s Run Life Care Community

Each year, an RRC student serves as rabbinic intern at Martin’s Run Life Care Community, the first kosher community of its kind, in Media, PA. Rabbinic interns conduct Shabbat and holiday services for the entire community, and offer pastoral care to elders and their relatives in the community’s assisted living facility.

A Dream for the Future: Rabbinic Engagement with Elders in Congregations

As Hiddur grows, we hope to expand our students’ clinical learning about aging though internships serving elders in congregations. We believe that the aging of the community will ultimately impel synagogues to develop new ways of serving and engaging elders, and we hope that placing rabbinic interns in the congregational setting will provide a laboratory for creating innovative and replicable models.