“Return, My Soul”: Blaustein Center Leads National Conversation on Moral Injury Among Jews

On May 14, the Blaustein Center for Pastoral Counseling hosted "Return, My Soul: Moral Injury in the Contemporary Jewish Community," a conference for Jewish clergy, Jewish educators, mental health professionals, art and expressive therapists, activists, and others to learn -in-person and virtually -from experts in the fields of moral injury, Jewish ethics, and the contemporary Jewish condition.

The conference was co-chaired, designed, and hosted by Hebrew Union College faculty members, Rabbi Nancy H. Wiener '90, D.Min. '94, Director of the Blaustein Center for Pastoral Counseling, and Rabbi Kim Geringer '99, M.S.W., Clinical Instructor in Clergy Professional Development. It offered attendees language and conceptual frameworks to understand the visible and invisible ways that Jews in the United States are suffering from moral injury -as Americans, as Jews, and as citizens of the world. In multiple and varied workshops, presenters also offered practical means, grounded in Jewish texts, theology, liturgy, and ritual, for promoting healing -what is known in the field of moral injury as "soul repair."

Rabbi Geringer said, "We were delighted that our hybrid format made it possible for people throughout the U.S. as well as Europe and Israel to attend the keynote and plenaries and to actively participate in the learning and discussions that took place in workshops."

Rabbis Wiener and Geringer have been involved in the field of moral injury since 2014. Following the publication of Rabbi Wiener's book, "Maps and Meaning: Levitical Models for Contemporary Care," they were invited to join an interfaith clergy think tank sponsored by the Soul Repair Center at Brite Divinity School in Ft. Worth, TX. The think tank brought together seminary pastoral educators and practical theologians to learn about moral injury and to create curricula for their seminaries using the unique language, theology, and ritual frameworks of their respective religious traditions and denominations. After two years with the group, Rabbis Wiener and Geringer created an elective for Hebrew Union College students, "Understanding Moral Injury: The Clergy as Witness and Healer," which they have offered every other year for over a decade. They have also been major contributors to the field, writing articles and offering workshops and webinars around the U.S. and in Israel.

Building on the success of their groundbreaking conference in 2021-the first ever to focus specifically on Jewish experiences of and responses to moral injury -and recognizing the myriad ways the world has changed in recent years, Rabbis Wiener and Geringer solidified the Blaustein Center's place as the center for the study of moral injury in the Jewish community with this recent conference.

"Our excitement about the conference grew as every person we invited to present or teach responded enthusiastically. We had identified the people who could offer the most and they all showed up," said Rabbi Wiener.

The conference kicked off with a broad introduction to the development and current state of the field of moral injury, then narrowed to focus on some of the ways in which Jews are experiencing moral injury today-in the U.S. and in Israel-and finally culminated in workshops based on proven healing modalities explored through a uniquely Jewish lens. Rita Nakashima Brock, Rel. M,, M.A., Ph.D., an internationally renowned leader in the field of moral injury, offered the keynote. She introduced attendees to terminology and concepts that enabled them to better understand distinctive features of moral injury and the ways that moral conscience is affected and sometimes harmed by the circumstances and choices that confront us. With colorful charts depicting the spectrum of moral injury, she elucidated gradations of suffering and the varied ways that moral injury can be experienced. To round out her presentation, she shared some of the modalities that have proved effective in working with morally injured individuals.

A panel of experts examined five contemporary sources of moral injury affecting American Jews and challenging their perceptions of themselves as responsible moral agents:

• Democratic Erosion with Aaron Dorfman, Founder and Executive Director of A More Perfect Union
• White Christian Nationalism with Marcia Pally, Ed.D., Multilingual Multicultural Studies, New York University
• Conflation of Anti-Judaism, Antisemitism, Anti-Israel, Anti-Zionism with Rabbi Joseph A Skloot '10, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Modern Jewish Intellectual History, Hebrew Union College
• Misrecognition Among Jews with Rabbi Tarlan Rabizadeh '18, VP for Jewish Engagement, American Jewish University
• Immigration/ICE with Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, The Beacon, Rabbi Emerita Congregation, Beth Simchat Torah

Panelists guided attendees to think both deeply and broadly about the ways that this moment in history is generating in Jews a profound sense of confusion, distrust, anger and fear, key causes of moral distress.

Rabbi Jonathan Crane '03, Ph.D., Raymond F. Schinazi Scholar in Bioethics and Jewish Thought at Emory University's Center for Ethics, offered a lively exploration of what we mean when we talk about ethics and morality. Through his demonstration of the multidimensional, competing considerations that inform our moral and ethical decision-making and his many examples ranging from the hypothetical to specific Jewish ethical dilemmas, Dr. Crane challenged attendees to consider their own cherished assumptions about themselves as moral agents.

The richness of the morning led to lively discussion over lunch as well as opportunities for people to speak with presenters.

In the early afternoon the conference focus turned to moral injury in Israel with a presentation by Yossi Levi Belz, Ph.D., a leading researcher and clinician specializing in moral injury diagnosis and treatment in Israel. He distilled key findings from his years-long investigation of trends and issues emblematic of post-Oct. 7 realities for Israelis. The breadth and depth of his work offered a glimpse into a set of realities little covered by the American and Israeli press, but ever-present among Israelis today.

Equipped with new information, language and constructs, attendees had the opportunity to learn about proven healing methodologies. In small group workshops, they explored texts, music and art, books of the Bible, activism, mussar, contemporary Jewish poetry, Jewish teachings about forgiveness and response to moral betrayal, Jewishly informed contemporary moral injury research, and contemporary examples of reconciliation between perpetrators and victims, all from a Jewish perspective.

The day concluded with a closing ritual conducted by Rabbis Wiener, Geringer, and Rabbi Cantor Shayna Burack '26 which offered attendees an opportunity to reflect on the day through poetry and music.

From emails received immediately after the conference, it was clear that attendees and presenters alike felt the day had been thought-provoking, challenging, and highly worthwhile.

"I wanted to say again how impactful the moral injury conference was - I absolutely loved the learning and have been using a lot of it in my teaching since."
- Rabbi Rachael Pass '21

"This conference really helped me understand the pain and trauma that individuals may carry with them ….As the CEO of the Association of Reform Jewish Educators it also provided valuable insight for me in how specific members may be suffering or how we might approach our organizational ethics work."
- Rabbi Stacy Rigler '03, MAJE '01, RJE, Executive Director, Association of Reform Jewish Educators

"I wanted to thank you for bringing together an incredibly eye-opening and informative conference. While I wasn't able to attend in person…I was grateful for the opportunity to participate online."
- Lisa Schnapper, student in Hebrew Union College's Virtual Pathway Rabbinic Program

"Thank you so much for squeezing me into this amazing conference. I'm still 'pinging' and processing the depth of information I learned, and I am eager to attend in person in the future."
- Cantor Rebecca Robins '08, Director of Religious Education, Temple Sinai, Washington, D.C.

"Just wanted to send a hearty pre-Shabbat yasher koach on a truly meaningful and informative conference yesterday. I learned so much and felt so much and felt so grateful to have such wonderful colleagues who put together such a first-rate roster of speakers."
- Rabbi Wendy Zierler, Ph.D., Sigmund Falk Professor of Modern Jewish Literature and Feminist Studies and conference presenter

"I would like to express my heartfelt thanks and deep appreciation for the remarkable conference on moral injury that you organized this past week. It was a gathering rich in new, thoughtful, and vitally important professional insight for our spiritual work in both the United States and Israel. Each of the speakers and facilitators brought profound and meaningful knowledge, and the conference as a whole offered an inspiring and essential space for all those seeking healing and hope in the complex reality of our time."
- Rabbi Talia Avnon Benveniste '08, Director of the Israel Rabbinical Program

And from a rabbi who joined from Israel, staying up late into the night to participate:

"Thank you for the inspiring and heartbreaking conference you created…We are living in a society dealing with this subject, and as rabbis, we are asking moral questions all the time. The framework of moral injury gives us a pathway to bravely approach very difficult situations, and also to imagine healing and a better future."
- Rabbi Efrat Rotem '15, Executive Director, MARAM, Israel

Read more about our work with "Moral Injury".