Officiation for Weddings, Funerals, Baby Namings, and other life transitions.
Spiritual Care Counseling and Eldercare Programming
ABOUT RABBI KUMMER
It has been my honor and my pleasure to provide spiritual support to people of all faiths as well as to people with no religious affiliation. I work with those seeking insight, spiritual wisdom, grounding and comfort.
My work over the past 20 years has helped me understand the breadth of human experience. It is this understanding, combined with professional chaplaincy skills and compassion, that I bring to each and every pastoral interaction.
I have worked as a chaplain in hospices and hospitals, in long-term care facilities and with clients at home. For 18 years I served as Executive Director of the Jewish Chaplaincy Council of Massachusetts, and later as Program Leader for the Community Chaplaincy Initiative at Hebrew SeniorLife. I have directed several other non-profit organizations and have served as a congregational rabbi in the Washington DC area and in New Jersey and New York.
A Boston native, I earned my BA at Barnard College and my Rabbinic Ordination and Masters of Hebrew Letters from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. I became a board-certified chaplain in 2019 after chaplaincy training at Hebrew SeniorLife, Beverly Hospital and Havenwood-Heritage Heights Continuing Care Retirement Community.
I am bound by HIPAA confidentiality regulations and by a code of ethics through Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains, my national professional chaplaincy association.
SPIRITUAL CARE VISITS
I am available to offer spiritual support to those facing a myriad of different spiritual issues. I counsel individuals in my office, at your home, or through an eldercare facility.
We can work in person or remotely, by phone or by zoom.
Our conversations are 50 minutes long, and you can determine the frequency of our meetings.
Together, in a safe and confidential environment, we may discuss:
• Medical challenges
• Relationships with family members
• Aging and mortality
• Loss and bereavement
• Thoughts about God
• Feelings about your religious heritage
• Spiritual/emotional challenges around a major life transition
• Life review
• Suffering
• Guilt and shame
• Forgiveness and trust
• Despair or hope
• Additional topics of your choosing
We might explore religious, spiritual or emotional resources you can draw on. I will be there to accompany you on your spiritual journey.
As a professional chaplain, I am bound by HIPAA confidentiality regulations and by a code of ethics through Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains, my national professional chaplaincy association.
PUBLICATIONS INCLUDE
• A New Beginning: Ceremonies for the Mikveh, Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh and Education Center (Co-author).
• Elul Earth Etudes (creative Jewish spiritual/environmental writing published on web), 2011-21.
• Meditations on various prayers in Reconstructionist Children’s Siddur, Reconstructionist Press, Wyncote, PA, 2004.
• Meditation on the Amidah in Kol Haneshama: Limot Hol/Daily Prayer Book, Reconstructionist Press, Wyncote, PA, 1996.
• “A Challenge to Chaplains,” NAJC Newsletter Dec, 2013.
• Shema Uvirchoteha for ages 8 to 12 in Connecting Prayer and Spirituality: Kol Haneshamah as a Creative teaching and Learning Text, Reconstructionist Press, Wyncote, PA, 1996.
Presentations at many conferences, synagogues and organizations.