Hospitals & chaplaincy
A Jewish visit at the bedside.
JEEP’s rabbis serve as volunteer Jewish chaplains in hospitals, nursing homes and psychiatric units throughout our area. Our visits are short, sweet and supportive, whatever a patient’s affiliation or background.
What we do
A hospital stay can be lonely. A familiar prayer, a holiday or just a visit can bring support, comfort and a sense of peace. In 2012, JEEP’s chaplains made about 850 hospital visits.
Hospitals
Bedside visits
Short, sweet and supportive visits for Jewish patients. If you have your own rabbi, we are glad to work with them whenever you want us to.
Psychiatric care
Mental health
Chaplaincy for Jewish residents at Summit Behavioral Center and on psychiatric units at area hospitals. Some people we visit every week.
Holidays
Holidays at the bedside
When a Jewish holiday comes, we bring it to the patient: the celebration, the food and the spirit, as each person wishes.
Families
Hard moments
We stand with families through life-support decisions and loss, and we help them with the traditions of a Jewish burial.
“You have to come in every week and just build and sustain that relationship knowing that sometimes, sometimes the magic will happen.”
A psychiatrist at a state hospital, in the JEEP film
From the hospital rooms.
We rarely learn how a visit turns out. Sometimes, years later, we do.
“It was my Jewish contact while I was in the hospital.”
A patient, about Rabbi Karp’s visits every few days. From the JEEP film.
“Your visit and help, right when we needed it, started a chain reaction.”
A father Rabbi Karp met in a maternity ward. From Headlights, Winter 2012.
Rabbi Levi Fuss
At the door
During COVID, Rabbi Fuss could only stand at the door of a Holocaust survivor’s hospital room. He saw that the man could not reach his call button. He got him water, and he made sure the nurses knew who this man was.
Maternity ward
A bris, decided
The day after their son was born, new parents learned about the mitzvah of bris milah during a JEEP visit to the maternity ward. They decided to give their son a bris.
Ask for a hospital visit
Call or text 513-307-2386, or write to rabbi@jewisheducate.org. Please tell us:
- the patient’s name,
- the hospital or care home, and the room if you know it,
- and anything that will help us, such as a holiday coming up.
Your chaplains are Rabbi Yaakov Karp and Rabbi Levi Fuss.
Know someone who needs a visit?
A parent in a care home, a friend in the hospital, a neighbor who can’t get to shul. Tell us. We will come.