Chaplain (PT)

Position Overview

The CJC Chaplain is a part-time member of the synagogue’s professional team, focused on pastoral care rather than program leadership or lifecycle officiation. The Chaplain works in close partnership with the Rabbi, staff, and lay leaders, strengthening the congregation’s culture of care and ensuring consistent follow-up during times of illness, grief, and transition.

• Hours: 15 hours per week
  
  
• Reports to: the Rabbi
  
  
• Compensation: 20-30k/year - Commensurate with experience

Core Responsibilities

Pastoral Presence & Care

• Provide compassionate pastoral support to congregants experiencing:
• Serious or chronic illness, hospitalization, or caregiving challenges;
• Long-term grief and anticipatory loss;
• Major life transitions such as aging, divorce, infertility, job loss, relocation, or identity shift.
• Offer in-person, phone, and virtual visits grounded in active and empathetic listening, emotional attunement, and Jewish spiritual resources.
• Provide prayer, ritual, reflection, and meaning-making in ways that honor Reconstructionist theology and the diverse beliefs of congregants.

Grief & End-of-Life Support

• Provide a second layer of pastoral presence, after the Rabbi. 
• Accompany congregants and families before and after a death.
• Offer presence during shiva and mourning periods, as appropriate.
• Provide ongoing check-ins in the weeks and months following loss, recognizing that grief does not end when formal rituals do.

Coordination & Community Care

• Coordinate closely with the Rabbi to ensure continuity of pastoral care.
• Collaborate with synagogue staff involved in caring roles (the Rabbi and Executive Director) and lay leaders involved in caring roles (the Caring Cooperative and the Chevra Kaddisha).
• Maintain appropriate pastoral notes and communication while honoring confidentiality and boundaries.
• Offer referrals to mental health professionals, social services, or community resources when needed.

Culture of Care

• Help cultivate a congregation-wide ethos of compassion, mutual responsibility, and inclusion. This may include some teaching if there is interest.
• Support and advise lay volunteers engaged in pastoral care.
• Participate in supervision, consultation, or professional development related to chaplaincy and trauma-informed care.

Clarifying Roles: Rabbi & Chaplain

Our congregation values clarity and collaboration. While the Chaplain and Rabbi work closely together, their roles are distinct and complementary.

The Chaplain:

• Focuses primarily on consistent, ongoing pastoral presence and follow-up
• Has the time and availability to make visits, sit with grief, and accompany congregants through extended periods of illness or transition.
• Provides emotional and spiritual support without responsibility for congregational leadership, teaching, administration or governance.
• May officiate at lifecycle events when invited and coordinated in partnership with the Rabbi.
  
  

The Rabbi:

• Holds primary responsibility for spiritual leadership, teaching, vision, and ritual authority.
• Officiates at lifecycle events (funerals, weddings, b’nai mitzvah, etc.)
• Sets overall pastoral care priorities, guides the Chaplain, and provides supervision to the Chaplain.
• Partners with the Chaplain to ensure congregants receive consistent, thoughtful care.

This partnership allows the rabbi to remain connected to congregants’ lives while ensuring that pastoral care is sustained, responsive, and deeply relational.

Qualifications

Required

• Training or certification in chaplaincy, pastoral care, or a related field (or equivalent experience)
• Strong grounding in Jewish life and practice, with comfort in Reconstructionist theology and values
• Demonstrated experience offering pastoral care in moments of illness, grief, and crisis
• Deep listening skills, emotional maturity, and the ability to hold complexity without needing to “fix”
• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively within a team and to receive and integrate feedback with humility
• The ability to keep multiple balls in the air at a time.

Preferred

• Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE)
• Experience in hospital, hospice, or community chaplaincy
• Familiarity with trauma-informed and end-of-life care
• Familiarity with intersecting identities and comfort working across diverse identities, family structures, and levels of Jewish connection

Personal Qualities We Value

• A calm, warm, and non-anxious presence
• Reliability, discretion, and clear boundaries
• Collaborative spirit and respect for shared leadership

Genuine love for community and people in all their vulnerability