Book Description

Self-relations is a powerful framework for doing respectful and human caregiving for your self as well as for others. Jewish Relational Care A-Z: We Are Our Other's Keeper is an extensive source for caregiving techniques based on both self-relations and Jewish tradition. Respected self-relation experts from several fields use Jewish traditions as a focal point as they provide insightful perspectives and effective strategies to assist caregivers of all faiths.

Jewish relational care is an effective teaching tool not only for Jewish clergy but also for non-Jewish clergy, to highlight how the Jewish tradition can broaden and improve any caregiving work. Jewish Relational Care A-Z: We Are Our Other's Keeper sensitively centers on relationships and the healing process, using the understanding that to spark healing in others, a loving, respectful relationship must first be present between every aspect of ourselves. Thirty-six categories of caregiving are comprehensively presented, allowing its use as a helpful resource for any clergy considering any of the included topics. Each author's personal reflections, and personal experiences care techniques clearly illustrate how love-respect relationships within oneself can transcend into effective care for others.

" This is AN EXCEPTIONAL BOOK on a relational approach to professional caring relationships. Jack H Bloom has assembled an extraordinary community of writers who talk as much about how to give care to others as how to care for one's self. This makes the book a remarkably practical and healing gift to its readers. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!" — Stephen Gilligan, PhD, Psychologist and Author of The Courage to Love: Principles of Self-Relations and Walking in Two Worlds

" A TREASURE HOUSE OF WISDOM possessing both religious and intellectual depth about care and caregiving, grounded in the insights of contemporary psychotherapy and a traditional yet present-day reading of the world of Judaism. The authors share with their readers many lifetimes of religious and practical experience, as well as intellectual and spiritual development, concerning almost every conceivable situation rabbis are likely to encounter in their caregiving role. These include their own inner struggles, their own and others' lifecycle crises, sexuality in all of its manifestations, marriage and intermarriage, and the divine/human encounter. Unlike some books in this genre, there isn't a false emotional or spiritual note within it. As with Bloom's 'The Rabbi as Symbolic Exemplar,' this book can be read with very great profit by congregants as well as rabbis, by churchgoers as well as clergymen." — Richard L. Rubenstein, PhD, President Emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Religion, University of Bridgeport; Lawton Distinguished Professor of Religion Emeritus, Florida State University

About the Author

Rabbi and Clinical Psychologist, Jack H Bloom, Ph.D. is one of a handful of rabbis who is a full member of both The Central Conference of American Rabbis (Reform), and The Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative). In 2001 an honorary doctorate was awarded to Dr. Bloom.

Dr. Bloom has become known as a rabbi’s rabbi. In addition to his private practice at The Psychotherapy Center in Fairfield, Connecticut, Dr. Bloom serves as Director of Professional Career Review for his Reform colleagues, for whom he created a program to assist rabbis seeking to shape their futures. Working closely with Conservative rabbis, he mentors and teaches regularly at the Rabbinic Training Institutes sponsored, by his alma mater, The Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Dr. Bloom earned a BA at Columbia College, a BHL, MHL and rabbinical ordination at The Jewish Theological Seminary of America. For ten years he was rabbi of Congregation Beth El, Fairfield, Connecticut, during which time he completed a STM in Pastoral Counseling from New York Theological Seminary. Dr. Bloom earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Columbia. Dr. Bloom’s dissertation “The Pulpit Rabbi as Symbolic Exemplar” was the first of his extensive writings on “what it’s like to be a rabbi”. Dr. Bloom and his wife Ingrid, a gifted artist and retired German teacher, reside in Fairfield, Connecticut. They are the parents of four children and grandparents of seven.