Rabbi Chaplain Stephen Roberts is a leading practitioner and teacher in the field of professional chaplaincy. He has written, edited and co-edited vital works that have become standard reading for CPE classes and chaplains in the field. These include his edited work Professional Spiritual and Pastoral Care: A Practical Clergy and Chaplain's Handbook, the first comprehensive resource for spiritual and pastoral care. He is also co-editor of Disaster Spiritual Care: Practical Clergy Responses to Community, Regional and National Tragedy.

Earlier in his career Rabbi Roberts served as Director of Pastoral Care for the Beth Israel Hospital System (NY). He has served as Associate Executive Vice President of the New York Board of Rabbis and oversaw pastoral care services to over fifty facilities in New York City, Long Island and Westchester. Rabbi Roberts has served on American Red Cross' National Spiritual Care Oversight Committee since 2000.   

Rabbi Roberts current focus as a chaplain is helping chaplains develop professionally through the organization ChaplainDL.ORG - Chaplain Distance Learning.

Rabbi Roberts has a Masters in Business from The Wharton School in Philadelphia, PA. He was ordained from Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in New York in 1995.

A Board Certified Chaplain, Rabbi Roberts is a past president of Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains and was instrumental in helping create the joint chaplaincy national standards. He is editing a textbook on required competencies for chaplains pursuing board certification. 

About our host:

Rabbi Edward Bernstein, BCC, is the producer and host of NeshamaCast. He serves as Chaplain at Boca Raton Regional Hospital of Baptist Health South Florida. He is a member of the Board of Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains. Prior to his chaplain career, he served as a pulpit rabbi in congregations in New Rochelle, NY; Beachwood, OH; and Boynton Beach, FL. He is also the host and producer of My Teacher Podcast: A Celebration of the People Who Shape Our Lives.

NeshamaCast contributor Rabbi Katja Vehlow was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary and is Director of Jewish Life at Fordham University. She trained as a chaplain at Moses Maimonides Medical Center in New York. Previously, she served as Associate Professor of Religious Studies at University of South Carolina. A native German speaker, she is planning a forthcoming German-language podcast on the weekly Torah portion with a focus on pastoral care.

NeshamaCast contributor Chaplain David Balto is a volunteer chaplain at Washington Hospital Center  in Washington, D.C. and Western Correctional Insitution, Maryland’s maximum security prison. He coordinated the annual National Bikur Cholim Conference. 

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Transcripts for this episode and other episodes of NeshamaCast are available at NeshamaCast.simplecast.com and are typically posted one week after an episode first airs. 
 

Theme Music is “A Niggun For Ki Anu Amecha,” written and performed by Reb-Cantor Lisa Levine.

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We welcome comments and suggestions for future programming at NeshamaCast@gmail.com. And be sure to follow NAJC on Facebook to learn more about Jewish spiritual care happening in our communities.