The Center for Pastoral Education at The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) has received a $1 million grant from the Charles H. Revson Foundation to renew the foundation’s commitment to the growth of the Pastoral Education program that it helped found.

The program equips seminary students, clergy, lay leaders and professionals of any religion or Jewish movement to serve the spiritual needs of those in crisis within their own faith traditions and in broader society, and is accredited by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education. Participants directly serve their communities through active involvement in social service agencies, hospices, and congregations.

With a growing demand from clergy and congregational volunteers who want to deepen their preparation as pastoral caregivers, but lack access to training that meets their needs and is designed from a Jewish perspective, this grant will allow the center to develop new outreach to work with communities directly, expand distance learning options, and be a source for Jewish training resources so that the center’s reach extends across North America.

The Charles H. Revson Foundation’s five-year grant is positioned as a matching-grant challenge.

The center recently received other grants that also strengthen its programs. UJA-Federation of New York expanded its funding to JTS for student pastoral care internships in hospices and social service agencies. The Jewish Foundation for Education of Women announced that it will provide scholarships for women earning certificates in Pastoral Care and Counseling at JTS. The Dr. Bernard Heller Foundation provided funding to support the supervisory resident program at the center.