Caring Community Resources

Caring Community

GENERAL RESOURCES

Introduction to Temple Israel's Caring Community:

See Temple Israel's Caring Community coordination site

Artson, Bradley Shavit.  It's a Mitzvah! : step-by-step to Jewish Living . j. BM723 .A73  
Provides guidance for welcoming guests, visiting the sick, and comforting mourners.  Also see article, Visiting the Sick in Judaism, 

Dorff, Elliot N. Love Your Neighbor and Yourself : a Jewish Approach to Modern Personal Ethics BJ1285 .D67   Chapter Five discusses communal responses to abuse and violence in the home and addresses two hard questions:  How should victims and those who witness abuse respond to it?  How do we determine that abuse has occurred while still maintaining Judaism's presumption of innocence?

Friedman, Dayle A., ed. Jewish Pastoral Care : a Practical Handbook from Traditional and Contemporary Sources. BM652.5 .J48 
In this collection of essays, rabbis from all Jewish movements draw on sacred text and their own experiences to provide guidance for visiting sick people, interacting with individuals who have chronic mental illnesses, and caring for the dying.

Gordon, Sol.  Is There Anything I can Do?  BF 575 .G7B49
This book examines how to nurture and encourage friends in difficult situations ranging from troubled children to alcoholism; from the death of a child to sexual assault.  Interspersed with helpful suggestions are reflections on friendship that resonate in good times as well as hard times.

Telushkin, Joseph. The Book of Jewish Values: A Day-by-Day Guide to Ethical Living, BJ1285 .T45 In 365 short chapters, readers are challenged to try out one new ethical behavior per day.  See Day 32: "Visiting the Sick: Seven Suggestions"  or Day 85: "Do not Stand By While Your Neighbor's Blood is Shed" or Day 145: "True Hospitality: Did You Ask Your Wife?"

Wolfson, Ron.    God's To-do List : 103 Ways to be an Angel and do God's Work on Earth   BM723 .W65

VISITING HOMEBOUND OR SICK COMMUNITY MEMBERS

Address, Richard F. To Honor and Respect:  A Program and Resource Guide for Congregations on Sacred Aging HQ1063.6 .A39
Discusses how communities can provide support for caregivers and create new Jewish rituals around aging. 

Bookman, Ann, Mona Harrington, Laurie Pass, and Ellin Reisner, eds. Family Caregiver Handbook: Finding Elder Care Resources in Massachusetts. HQ1064.U5B6 2007. This handbook is designed with the caregiver in mind. It poses basic questions caregivers need to ask - and answer - as they design elder care plans and make elder care choices. It explains how services are organized, and has a glossary to define some unfamiliar elder care terms. It is a "gateway" to key elder care organizations across the Commonwealth, providing telephone numbers, locations and website adresses so that caregivers can find the most appropriate resources closest to their own community. Two of the authors, Ann Bookman and Ellin Reisner, are Temple Israel members.

How To Visit the Sick in Judaism
A rabbi offers advice about how to perform the mitzvah of visiting the sick with wisdom, discretion, and sensitivity.
By Rabbi Bradley Artson: Abridged from It's a Mitzvah! 

Jellinek, Paul.  Promise to Mary : a story of faith in action. HV530 .J4
Here is the story of Faith in Action, the acclaimed nationwide grant program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that brings together Americans of all faiths to provide volunteer care and support to people in their communities who are confined to their homes becomes of a chronic health condition or disability. Through a series of revealing in-depth interviews..."Promise to Mary" provides a unique and often profoundly moving glimpse into the lives of some of our most isolated and forgotten neighbors - as well as the remarkable volunteers, from all faiths and all walks of life, who have come to their aid.

VISITING ELDERLY COMMUNITY MEMBERS - BOOKS ESPECIALLY FOR CHILDREN

Fox, Mem.  Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge.  Pic Fox.  A small boy tries to discover the meaning of memory so he can restore that of an elderly friend.

Polacco, Patricia.  Mrs. Katz and Tush. Pic Pol
A young African-American boy, Larnel,  visits Mrs. Katz, looks after her, and gives her a little tail-less cat whom she names Tush. As their lives entwine, Mrs. Katz and Larnel share food and holidays and the knowledge that their people's pasts both involved slavery and discrimination.

WELCOMING GUESTS

How to Be a Host, How to Be a Guest
By Rabbi Louis Jacobs
Jewish ethical literature provides practical, down-to-earth guidelines on how to behave towards one's guests and towards one's hosts.
Jacobs' sources real hospitality is more than just having friends visit in your home. It involves directly providing for wayfarers and others who might be in need of a meal and of people with whom to share it. 

VISTING MOURNERS

See Temple Israel Library's pathfinder on grief and mourning     

Diamant, Anita.  Saying Kaddish. BM 712 .D53199.
Explains Kaddish, Shiva, and Yahrzeit customs.  For readers who are paying a shiva visit for the first time, this book provides suggestions for what to expect, say, bring, and do.  There is extensive and sensitive treatment of questions on how to bury and mourn non-Jews within a Jewish community.

Greenberg, Sidney, ed. A Treasury of Comfort . BF 575 .G7G68 1994.
This anthology of short poems and meditations on loss would be good to read aloud or with someone.  The short selections are so diverse that there is sure to be some helpful word for any reader.

Heilman, Samuel C. When a Jew Dies  BM712 .H45
More scholarly than purely practical, this book provides an overview of death rituals in Jewish law and a detailed understanding of how a chevra kaddisha prepares a dead body for burial.

Kay, Alan.  A Jewish Book of Comfort.  BM712 .K385.  Over 175 inspirational readings to comfort the mourner. Explains traditions and rituals of mourning

Levine, Aaron. To Comfort the Bereaved : a Guide for Mourners and those who Visit Them. BM712 .L43
Topics in this practical book include the traditions for the meal of condolence, visitation obligations, visiting the house of mourning, and what to say/what not to say.  The book is laid out as an outline.

Comforting Jewish Mourners: Nihum Avelim