“Learning to Read Myself in Relation to Other People”: Rabbinical Student David Elitzer on the Impact of Clinical Pastoral Education

“Throughout my time at Hebrew Union College, I have seen that so much rabbinic work is about connecting emotionally with people and really empathetically feeling what they are going through as a basis for supporting them,” says rising fifth year rabbinical student David Elitzer, MPhil, MSc, MAHL. He says his most significant opportunity to put that insight into practice came through four units of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at NYU Langone Health. David credits the support of Hebrew Union College’s Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Center for Pastoral Counseling—which integrates fieldwork, training and mentoring programs, and professional development into the rabbinical school experience alongside the mastery of Jewish text and ritual—for making his extensive studies in CPE possible.

Hebrew Union College rabbinical students are required to complete a pastoral care internship, which most students fulfill by doing one unit of CPE, or 400 training hours. In May, Elitzer successfully completed the four units—1600 training hours— the requirement to be eligible for board certification, after serving as a chaplain intern at NYU Langone Health over the course of two years. Elitzer is now preparing to enter his final year of rabbinical school and will also begin a Cooperberg-Rittmaster Rabbinical Internship at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York City in September.

When it came to CPE, Elitzer says that, at first, “I thought I was going to do one summer unit, and I requested pediatrics because it was an area I was interested in. As it happened, NYU Langone was in between pediatric chaplains, so they said that I could cover it, and I just fell in love with the work immediately.” Working closely with NYU Langone’s Pediatric Advanced Care Team (PACT), which provides palliative care to patients in Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital, Elitzer learned about providing spiritual care for the families of children facing serious or chronic medical conditions.

“I was encountering all these counseling concepts that we would talk about in class at Hebrew Union College and seeing with my patients and their families how they manifested in real life—and how they affirmed or challenged my own theology. I also started questioning more how our own experience affects the way in which we see the world. Reflecting on all this through the CPE process really drew me in.”

Following his first stint at NYU Langone, Elitzer worked as a per diem pediatric chaplain where he spent nine months focusing on Spanish-speaking patients while covering for a maternity leave. “When that time was up, I realized that I wanted to further develop this skill set. I wanted to take this work to the next level and be more intentional about the work I’m doing as a pastoral caregiver.’”

At that point, Elitzer returned to NYU Langone, where he completed another unit of CPE on the Brooklyn campus, primarily in inpatient adult behavioral health. That was where he first worked with Rev. Young-ki Eun, M.A., M.Div., ACPE, Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) Educator at NYU Langone Health. “I am so grateful to Young-ki and all the staff chaplains at NYU. Having done four units there, I really got to know them, and they really got to know me. It was so special to be able to build trust with this team over many months, and for them to help me grow as a chaplain. Young-ki helped me to do the emotional work of being in touch with myself and my emotions, which formed me not only as a chaplain but also as a future rabbi.”

Reverend Eun says, “Intrapersonal dynamics and interpersonal dynamics are very closely connected. The more you are aware of, in touch with, and able to embrace your inner self—including your emotions—the better you are able to connect with others in a more authentic and genuine way.”

“It was a great joy and a mutually enriching learning experience to work with David, who possesses both a powerful intellectual capacity and a kind, tender heart,” Eun continues. “He was a delightful team player. He committed himself to his spiritual formation and integration in CPE, continuously enhancing his capacity for spiritual care interventions. He also strengthened his ability to endure uncertainty and approached his professional development more from a soul-to-soul perspective than a role-to-role one.”

Going into the CPE process, Elitzer says, “I thought that CPE was all about learning to read other people. But it was on the behavioral health floor that I really came to understand that the process of CPE is equally about learning to read myself in relation to other people. Having to work to form deep empathetic connections with people who see the world very differently, in various states of psychosis or other psychiatric conditions, I realized, with Young-ki’s help, that this was fundamentally a skill that is pretty much universal within any pastoral care relationship.”

Elitzer recalls one time at a visiting student high holiday pulpit when he was preparing to lead a Yizkor service. “I was looking at the liturgy and I was thinking about what musical settings to use, feeling pretty nervous about doing this very solemn service that I had never done before, and wanting to get it right.”

When he got up in front of the congregation and started the service, Elitzer recalls, “I immediately felt that I was running to the chaplaincy role inside myself. And I said, ‘Oh, this is what I have been training to do. It’s not in a hospital, and I’m not with a patient, but I am here to connect with the people in front of me and feel the real pain and sorrow that they’re feeling now and create a space that embraces them and makes them feel that they’re not alone.’ And it was not my Hebrew skills that made the service work. It was my chaplaincy training through CPE that actually gave me the skills to lead the yizkor service in which people had the space to mourn in a way that they felt emotionally and pastorally supported.”

“CPE taught me how to do rabbinic work in whatever setting I am in.”

Elitzer’s experiences are emblematic of the objectives of the Clinical Pastoral Education program, says Nancy Wiener, D.Min., Founding Director of the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Center for Pastoral Counseling, and Fieldwork Coordinator, in addition to her position as Dr. Paul and Trudy Steinberg Distinguished Professor in Human Relations.

“The integrative learning that David has enjoyed through CPE, congregational leadership opportunities, classroom learning and on-going supervision have been a cornerstone of the Blaustein Center’s work since its inception. The capacity to connect with others on a deeply human level is a rare gift in our world; our hope is that future clergy will be able to offer it alongside Jewish teachings, liturgy, and values to bring meaning and holiness into every context of their professional lives.”