Pastoral Care and Counseling

The Professional and Pastoral Skills program prepares students to meet their future rabbinic and cantorial responsibilities. Through courses, seminars, internships, rotations, and workshops, students acquire skills in leadership, pastoral counseling, communication, and administration.

Courses are designed to provide the skills and confidence students need to meet the challenges of the contemporary Jewish community. Each student is guided in the deepening of personal religious commitment and is trained to articulate a vision of Jewish life that will inspire the next generation of Conservative Jews to embrace the traditional values and practices that give definition to the Jewish experience.

The Center for Pastoral Education offers a certificate in Pastoral Care and Counseling. The certificate curriculum integrates academic learning and professional skills with religious and personal identity formation. Future clergy and religious professionals acquire the pastoral training—shaped by Jewish values and texts—that will help them serve the diverse needs of their congregants, clients, and students with compassion and creativity. The center also offers ACPE accredited units of Clinical Pastoral Education part-time during the academic year and full-time during the summer.

Classes not specifically designed for cantorial and rabbinical candidates are open to all JTS students.

The Beit Midrash program is supported by an endowment of the Leffel Family Foundation. Two instructors are designated the Rabbi Bernard Leffel Scholars. A third instructor is designated the Steven Glantz Scholar.