Chaplaincy Program

Since the Jewish Chaplaincy Program began more than 40 years ago, its mission of caring for Jewish patients and their families, with special outreach to the unaffiliated, has expanded. Each year, chaplaincy staff and volunteers touch hundreds of Jewish residents and family members. The chaplaincy program reaches out to patients in 10 acute-care facilities in the greater Milwaukee area, as well as to residents and clients of the Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division and to those in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, hospices and prisons.

Notification

Because of more stringent confidentiality laws, should you or a loved one be hospitalized, please notify the hospital that you or the patient are Jewish and that a Jewish chaplaincy visit would be welcome. To let us know that a loved one or friend is hospitalized or in one of the facilities we serve, please call 414-219-6083. Please also alert the patient’s synagogue if affiliated.

Activities

The Jewish Chaplaincy Program and JFS work together to:

• Train volunteers under the Pathways to Healing Program to help those with health care needs.
• Implement the Kosher Meals Program, a service for hospitalized, homebound and institutionalized individuals.
• Sponsor the Special Needs Jewish Holiday Program, a nationally recognized program that works in cooperation with Milwaukee-area synagogues and senior care/group homes to serve adults with developmental, mental, and physical disabilities.

To order kosher meals for those at home or for information regarding kosher food in institutional settings, call 414-390-5800. To learn more about our holiday program - or to make a reservation - call 414-445-9376.

Cooperation and Partnership

JFS volunteers assist the Chaplaincy in providing for eight holiday celebrations over the course of the year at area synagogues for exceptional needs individuals and older adults who are living in non-Jewish nursing homes or group homes.  Through an employee of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, the Jewish Chaplaincy has a cooperative relationship with JFS.  The Chaplaincy is also a partner of the Kosher Mobile Meals Program.

For more than 40 years, the Jewish Chaplaincy Program has cared for Jewish patients and their families, with special outreach to the unaffiliated. This program is a cooperative effort between the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and Jewish Family Services.