Partners in Caring institutions gather for yearly conference

“We care about you.” That is the message that 15 local synagogues and Sid Jacobson JCC work together to proclaim to their 7,000+ member families and the greater Jewish community on the North Shore of Long Island.

This winter, over 80 people, representing all of the partner institutions of Partners In Caring (PIC) came together for the Partners In Caring – 2010 Caring Conference. Two keynote speakers led the program. Rabbi Simkha Weintraub, the Rabbinic Director of the New York Jewish Healing Center presented “Let Them All Join Together in One Fellowship: Enhancing and Expanding the Caring Quotient of the Synagogue-PIC Relationship.” Margie Miller, lead trainer for the Women’s League of Conservative Judaism presented “Caring Communities, Volunteer and Leadership Development: The Intersection of Relationships and Community Building.”

Local clergy also participated in the program, helping weave the importance and benefit of the Partners in Caring (PIC) partnership in our Jewish community into the discussion. During his remarks at the conference, Rabbi Michael White of Temple Sinai said “Quietly, and without fanfare, the compassionate professionals of PIC help our neighbors, friends and relatives move through the pain and the shock. They provide tender, sensitive counsel; they make connections to the proper experts, they visit people in their homes, at hospitals and nursing homes. They grant strong embraces, shoulders to cry on, pathways back to healing and strength and even joy. They give what our tradition calls chesed, loving kindness, and as they do, they become conduits for God’s immeasurable love and strength. They are a gift to this community.”

UJA-Federation’s Partners In Caring (PIC) is a social service partnership between 15 area synagogues and Sid Jacobson JCC. Funded by UJA-Federation of NY, partner synagogues and Sid Jacobson JCC, PIC offers short term counseling, support groups, information and referral services, and synagogue and community-wide programs. PIC’s caring and experienced social work team includes Audrey Bernstein, LMSW, Randy Hight, LMSW, Margy Ringelheim, LMSW and Susan Broxmeyer, LCSW, ACSW who serves as the clinical social work supervisor.

Stuart Botwinick, MAJEd, MAJCS, is the Director of Partners In Caring and Assistant Executive Director of Sid Jacobson Jewish Community Center. He notes “This event

Sid Jacobson JCC Contact:Kate Perelman, PR Coordinator516.484.1545kperelman@sjjcc.org

and the PIC partnership show an amazing community effort to help those in need. PIC is an invaluable complement and supplement to the spiritual care offered in the synagogues. Working together, the JCC and the synagogues make a real difference in the lives of those in our community.” The fifteens synagogues in the partnership include The Community Synagogue, Congregation Tifereth Israel, Lake Success Jewish Center, Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation, Port Jewish Center, Shelter Rock Jewish Center, Temple Beth Israel, Temple Beth Sholom, Temple Isaiah, Temple Israel of Great Neck, Temple Judea, Temple Sinai, Temple Tikvah, The Reconstructionist Synagogue of the North Shore, and Woodbury Jewish Center.

Working closely with clergy, staff and lay leadership of the synagogues, PIC receives over 100 phone calls each month. PIC offers support during normal life-cycle transitions, difficult situations and change. Bereavement, separation and divorce, caregiving, cancer-wellness and parenting are just some of the issues for which PIC can offer help.

For more information about UJA-Federation’s Partners In Caring (PIC), call 516-484-1545, ext 196.

As the only full-service Jewish Community Center on Long Island's North Shore, Sid

Jacobson Jewish Community Center and Bernice Jacobson Day School and Camp, its

campus in Brookville, provide a full range of cutting-edge recreational, health, fitness,

educational, cultural arts and social services programs. Sid Jacobson JCC promotes

Jewish identity and provides a comprehensive program based on Jewish values,

traditions, heritage and culture and is committed to enriching the lives of all individuals

and families in our community. For more information, contact us at 300 Forest Drive,

East Hills, NY, (516) 484-1545 or visit our web site at: www.sjjcc.org.