JSA Podcast 25: Mychal Springer and Sally Kaplan on Advance Planning for End of Life

Sally Kaplan, left, and Rabbi Mychal Springer, are guests on this edition of the Jewish Sacred Aging Podcast
Sally Kaplan, left, and Rabbi Mychal Springer, are guests on this edition of the Jewish Sacred Aging Podcast

On this episode of the Jewish Sacred Aging Podcast, the guests are Rabbi Mychal B. Springer nad Sally Kaplan, who are leading What Matters: Caring Conversations About End of Life, an initiative to bring advance care planning to the Jewish community of New York.

About the Guests

Rabbi Mychal Springer
Rabbi Mychal Springer

Rabbi Mychal B. Springer founded the Center for Pastoral Education at JTS in 2009, establishing relationships with hospices, Jewish social service agencies, and—most recently—prisons and reentry facilities, allowing students to learn the art of pastoral care as they serve marginalized populations.

She began her career as a chaplain in New York City’s top hospitals, and in the 1990s became the director of the Department of Pastoral Care and Education at Beth Israel Medical Center. Mychal returned to JTS in 2002 as The Rabbinical School’s associate dean and director of Field Education.

The first Conservative rabbi to be certified as a supervisor by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE), Mychal has built a program that uniquely equips graduates to meet the spiritual needs of all the people they serve. She holds the Helen Fried Kirshblum Goldstein Chair in Professional and Pastoral Skills at JTS and oversees the Certificate in Pastoral Care & Counseling. She teaches the First Year Rabbinical School Seminar in Theology and courses on topics including bikkur holim and Sexuality & Gender for Religious Professionals. Mychal also serves as chair of the JTS Committee on Sexuality and Gender.

Mychal received her BA in Judaic Studies and Religious Studies from Yale College magna cum laude. She was ordained a Conservative rabbi and received her Master’s in Judaic Studies at JTS. Mychal is a certified Jewish chaplain in Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains.

Sally Kaplan, Program Director of What Matters: Caring Conversations About End of Life, an initiative to bring advance care planning to the Jewish community of New York.
Sally Kaplan

Sally Kaplan is the Program Director of What Matters: Caring Conversations About End of Life, an initiative to bring advance care planning to the Jewish community of New York. What Matters represents a consortium of JCC Manhattan, the Center for Pastoral Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and The New Jewish Home, with funding from Plaza Jewish Community Chapel. Previously she was the Planning Manger of UJA-Federation of New York’s Caring Commission, overseeing the portfolio of spiritual and end-of-life care grants in New York and Israel, including the establishment of the only certified residential hospice under Jewish auspices in the greater New York area. She serves in lay leadership capacities at UJA-Federation, Congregation Rodeph Sholom,  and other Jewish communal organizations. Sally has engaged in CPE training at the HealthCare Chaplaincy and at JTS and recently served as a chaplain at the Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She has been a featured speaker on end-of-life and spiritual care issues for healthcare, congregational, and Jewish community audiences.

 

 

These podcasts are produced in the studios of Professional Podcasts, a division of The Lubetkin Media Companies LLC, Cherry Hill, NJ.

 

 

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