“A commitment to building a society of solidarity and well-being”: Israel Rabbinical Program Continues Initiative on “Moral Injury” to Support Israeli Rabbis

After two years of war and the recent return of some hostages held in captivity since the October 7 attacks in Israel, "the efforts to rehabilitate the state and the nation must focus not only on rebuilding infrastructure - but, with even greater urgency, on restoring the spirit of a torn and traumatized society," says Rabbi Talia Avnon-Benveniste, Director of the Israel Rabbinic Program (IRP) at Hebrew Union College.

"Numerous testimonies from this war - like many others - describe not only the severe physical and psychological injuries suffered by individuals, and the immense loss and grief experienced by families and communities, but also a widespread trauma known in professional language as moral injury," Avnon-Benveniste says. "This is not merely a psychological condition; it carries deeper implications rooted in prolonged exposure to violence and the collapse of a just social order, as witnessed in this war."

The concept of moral injury - initially identified by clinicians from the U.S. Veterans Administration working with those returning from Afghanistan and Iraq - has been at the center of an ongoing Hebrew Union College initiative to support rabbis in Israel as they continue to guide their congregations and communities through challenging times.

"In the wake of October 7, we - like so many of our clergy colleagues - struggled from afar to identify ways to demonstrate our love and support," says Rabbi Nancy H. Wiener, D.Min, Director, Blaustein Center for Pastoral Counseling at Hebrew Union College. Wiener and Rabbi Kim Geringer, M.S.W., Clinical Instructor in Clergy Professional Development, have contributed to the field of moral injury and Jewish teachings, through research, writing and instruction at Hebrew Union College and beyond. In the summer of 2024 they planned and led a two-day retreat at the Taube Family Campus in Jerusalem, to give IRP students, Israeli rabbis, and rabbis from MARAM, the Council of Reform Rabbis in Israel, an opportunity to learn about moral injury and process their own experiences.

As a follow-up, Wiener recently taught on moral injury during webinars in Hebrew for Israel Rabbinical Program alumni and rabbis from MARAM. "The immediate outpouring of interest following the announcement of these webinars attested to the profound interest and deep need among Reform Israeli clergy to gain new tools for providing care for themselves and those in their communities," she says.

The new cohort that gathered in the summer of 2025 spent the first part of the webinar discussing the situations that can give rise to moral injury and the ways that rabbis can learn to recognize symptoms. The second part of the program focused on the unique aspects of support and healing that clergy can offer by drawing on Jewish texts, customs and rituals. In September, a group of rabbis who had attended the prior workshops joined MARAM rabbis for an additional webinar focused on Elul, personal preparation for the High Holy Days, self-care and finding hope and strength through the holiday liturgy.

"These sustained opportunities to connect and share the fruits of our years of work in the field of moral injury have been a gift and a blessing for us," Wiener says.

Rabbi Efrat Rotem, the Director of Maram and an admissions coordinator at Hebrew Union College, also uses the word "blessing" to describe the gatherings, which she says have been an ideal way to bring more clergy members together, build on lessons from the 2024 retreat, and deepen the way rabbis can apply insights on moral injury to discussions with the people they serve.

"The feeling that these webinars were a safe space to share, feel, cry, let out steam, wonder, thank and regroup, was palpable. We as Israeli rabbis were given tools to give our congregants spiritual care, but we also received it ourselves," Rotem says.

IRP Director Avnon-Benveniste says that as Israeli society works to rebuild itself in the shadow of war, the need to establish training frameworks in the field of moral injury is more pressing than ever - and Hebrew Union College will be at the center of that effort.

"From the depths of trauma and the gravity of the moment, from a commitment to building a society of solidarity and well-being, from the realms of spirit and action, from the brokenness of the past and its healing in the present, and from a hope to restore trust, security, belonging, morality, and spirit - the Taube Family Campus in Jerusalem is working to establish the Center for National Spiritual Resilience," Avnon-Benveniste says. The new center, she explains, will operate training programs for professionals in the field of spiritual care, who will work within institutions, communities, synagogues, kibbutzim, urban spaces, and educational bodies.

"These spiritual caregivers will be trained in practices tailored to the urgent needs of Israeli society, and will work to restore the resilience of a state and a nation that seeks life."