PROGRAMS
Let’s Talk: Insights from a Palliative Care Doctor
What is palliative care, and how does it differ from hospice? How might understanding it change the way we approach end-of-life decisions — and where does Jewish wisdom fit in?
Join us as we build the knowledge and confidence to face end-of-life planning with greater clarity and less fear. Shomer Collective's Rabbi Melanie Levav will be in conversation with Dr. Michael Pottash, Professor of Clinical Medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine, whose teaching and research bridges serious illness, end-of-life communication, and medical ethics.
Knowing Your Options: Jewish Spiritual Care at the End of Life
How can we access Jewish spiritual care at the end of life, and what does Jewish wisdom have to say about choosing hospice care? How do Jewish practices and beliefs complement the hospice experience? Join us as we explore these and other questions about spiritual care at end of life, in a conversation with Rabbi Natan Fenner, board certified chaplain with over 25 years of accompanying people through illness, loss, life transitions, caregiving, and dying.
Knowing Your Options: What is Hospice?
What is hospice? And how might Jewish wisdom support decision-making around end-of-life care?
Too often, choosing hospice is seen as “giving up”, against the Jewish directive to “choose life.” Join us as we dispel this (and other myths) in conversation with Toby Weiss, Assistant Vice President of Cultural Diversity at MJHS Health System, a renowned provider of hospice care. We will explore everything you wanted to know about hospice but didn’t know to ask, including the types of care offered by hospice, how, when, and for whom hospice care can help; and how to maximize what hospice can offer. This program is intended for those with questions for their own relationship to hospice or that of a loved one.
Facing Mortality with Jewish Wisdom: Palliative Care
Palliative care focuses on optimizing quality of life and reducing suffering. Too often, it is misunderstood and underutilized. Join us to learn how palliative care can help us connect to our core values and to the Jewish wisdom to “choose life.” Hear stories from the field and receive guidance from a palliative care chaplain/rabbi and a palliative care physician to help us better advocate for ourselves and the important people in our lives. Bring your questions and conundrums. [Feel free to email them in advance to hello@shomercollective.org]
Speakers:
Rabbi Edith M. Meyerson, DMin, BCC
Rabbi Dr. Edith Meyerson DMin BCC is the Director of Pastoral Counseling and Bereavement Services with the Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she also holds a faculty appointment. Rabbi Meyerson oversees the department’s Pastoral Care and Counseling Internship Program and directs the Doula Volunteer Program. Her clinical expertise focuses on providing spiritual care and counsel within the context of a palliative care goals of care meeting. As a dedicated and highly regarded teacher, role model and mentor, she has trained medical students, fellows, faculty and staff on the role of spirituality in palliative care and supervised and mentored more than 35 palliative care chaplaincy trainees. She is also an expert in the area of support and counsel for the professional caregiver of all disciplines and levels of training, and conducts debriefing and process groups for clinical palliative care faculty, staff, and volunteers and as well as for clinicians and staff throughout the hospital Rabbi Dr. Meyerson is also active regionally and nationally in the field of professional spiritual care. She has presented extensively on the psychosocial, cultural, and spiritual aspects of palliative care, as well as the importance of interdisciplinary team care for seriously ill patients and their family members. Rabbi Meyerson is a Certification Commission member and mentor for Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains (NAJC) where she has also served 2 board terms. Rabbi Dr. Meyerson holds both a doctorate in pastoral counseling and rabbinical ordination from HUC-JIR and chaplaincy board certification from NAJC.
Dr. Anup Bharani
Dr. Anup Bharani (he/him) graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania after which he received his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Missouri School of Medicine-Columbia. He completed internal medicine residency at Boston Medical Center and hospice and palliative medicine fellowship at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Bharani is double board-certified and currently serves as Assistant Professor within the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at Mount Sinai where he primarily cares for hospitalized people living with serious illness and their families. He also serves as Associate Program Director of the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program. Dr. Bharani has particular areas of interest in medical education, palliative care for those living with advanced heart failure, and palliative care in the LBGTQ+ community.