Elul Helpline

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You’re working harder than ever and juggling a lot.

Sometimes you need a supportive voice to work things through. Atra’s “Elul Helpline” offers one-on-one coaching and support with experts in the field, free of charge. Talk through your biggest challenge – be it coping with burnout, planning ahead during uncertain times, managing your Board, family engagement, providing pastoral care, or building community in innovative ways – or just use your half hour to get the chizuk (encouragement) you need from an expert who cares.

Each fall since 2020, Atra has offered one-on-one coaching and support with experts in the field, free of charge, for clergy navigating Elul and the Chagim.

Elul Helpline is closed for the 2024 holiday season. Please fill out our general program interest form to be the first to find out when next year’s coaching becomes available!

 

Meet your Elul Helpline Coaches:

Rabbi Ana Bonnheim

Rabbi Ana Bonnheim is the founding executive director of the Jewish Learning Collaborative, which aims to democratize Jewish learning.

Rabbi Bonnheim leads a team who provide ongoing personalized Jewish learning to professionals and board members at Jewish organizations and create flexible freelance work opportunities for clergy and educators. The Jewish Learning Collaborative is incubated at Moishe House. Ana is also the immediate past chair of the Central Conference of American Rabbis ethics committee and previously worked as a camp director and development professional.

Ana’s work is focused on innovation, creating pilots and scaling those that work, and investing in rabbis and Jewish leaders to create multi-vocal communities of ongoing learning.

Connect with Ana for a warm conversation filled with questions and reflection to work on strategy, creating consensus, building teams, bringing your vision to life, and figuring out what you can do today to plan your impact.


Rabbi Menachem Creditor

Rabbi Menachem Creditor serves as the Pearl and Ira Meyer Scholar in Residence at UJA-Federation New York and was the founder of Rabbis against Gun Violence.

An acclaimed author, scholar, and speaker with over 2 million views of his online videos and essays, Rabbi Creditor was named by Newsweek as one of the fifty most influential rabbis in America. His 31 published books and 6 albums of original music include the global anthem “Olam Chesed Yibaneh” and the COVID-era 2-volume anthology “When We Turned Within.”

Connect with Menachem for conversations about spirituality, social justice, text, Israel, and congregational life.


Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein

Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein

Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein is the Executive Director of Atra: Center for Rabbinic Innovation and serves as faculty at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America.

Previously, Rabbi Epstein served as Executive Director of the 14th Street Y in Manhattan, and her past roles have included serving as Rabbi-Educator at Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Rabbi Epstein has served at various congregations, Jewish youth groups and summer camps as an educator and family educator, and is a certified Storah telling “Maven.” Shira loves mentoring and coaching innovative clergy as they work to bring their vision to life.

Connect with Shira to have an experienced colleague to listen to your concerns, and help clarify how you can align your work with your vision, resources, your community’s needs, the concerns of your colleagues and stakeholders, and the outcomes you most hope to achieve.


Rabbi Daniel Kraus

Rabbi Daniel Kraus is the Director of Community Education at KJ (Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun) and Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Birthright Israel Foundation, where he leads strategic alliances. A Melbourne native, Daniel holds a B.S. and MBA from Yeshiva University and received ordination from Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg. Previously, he directed the Manhattan Jewish Experience Downtown and built a thriving community for 7,000+ young professionals. He has a passion for integrating innovative, out-of-the-box ideas into programming and infusing a keen entrepreneurial spirit into his rabbinic work. Daniel was named one of the Jewish Week’s 36 Under 36 in 2017.

He and his wife Rachel live on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with their four children.

Connect with Daniel for an open-hearted, candid conversation about Rabbinic innovation, entrepreneurship, congregational life, or any pressing issue you’re facing—big or small.


Faith Leener

Faith Leener is the Chief Innovation Officer at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. Faith previously served as the founding Executive Director of Base (basemovement.org), overseeing the growing network of Bases and leading Base’s strategic development, fundraising, and expansion efforts. She believes that Judaism and Jewish community, if offered and cultivated with intention, authenticity, and curiosity, have the capacity to bring tremendous meaning, purpose, and joy to our lives.

Connect with Faith for a warm conversation about imagining possibilities, mindfulness, innovation, Jewish learning, entrepreneurship, or anything else on your mind.

Dr. Evie Rotstein

Dr. Evie Rotstein: As a coach, consultant and facilitator, Evie works with individuals and teams to help them find clarity to navigate change, in service of creating vibrant, engaged, and meaningful learning communities.

Evie has served as the Director of the NY School of Education HUC-JIR and the Director of the Leadership Institute for Congregational Educators. She presently teaches a national certificate program in Social, Emotional and Spiritual Learning and is a lead faculty member of the New Director’s Institute, an interdenominational project sponsored by USCJ, ARJE and Recontructing Judaism.

Connect with Evie to strategically design powerful learning experiences that foster creativity and curiosity for all ages. With keen listening, she will explore your goals to provide innovative thinking to support the launch of new initiatives.


Dr. Betsy Stone

Dr. Betsy Stone is a nationally known, retired psychologist who serves as an adjunct lecturer at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She has been teaching and working with rabbis for the past 19 years, both through HIC-JIR and privately. She teaches and consults with Jewish professionals across North America and Europe. She also leads clergy support groups in her local community and nationally. She received her Doctorate in Psychology from Yale University.

Connect with Betsy for an experienced listening ear in addressing issues of burnout, trauma, exhaustion and moral injury.


Rabbi David S. Wolfman

David S. Wolfman: Consulting: The Human Side of Change® was founded to help you embrace change and move forward toward new possibilities.

Change is something to embrace, not fear. David S. Wolfman Consulting: The Human Side of Change® was founded to help you embrace change and move forward toward new possibilities, whether it’s in the congregations and organizations you lead or in your own life and career. Covid 19, 10/7, and the rise of the Millennial Generation of new adults – the largest and most important generation ever to live on this planet – have made us throw out the playbook!

Connect with David for coaching on embracing change and moving towards new possibilities. As a rabbi, coach and consultant he can help you navigate during this chapter of your rabbinate and help you pivot and reinvent for the present and future.


Rabbi Mary L. Zamore

Rabbi Mary L. Zamore is the Executive Director of the Women’s Rabbinic Network (WRN) and a nationally recognized thought leader.

Drawing on her vast 18 years of experience as a congregational rabbi, Rabbi Zamore now supports and guides the 700+ rabbi-members of WRN, advocating for the values they uphold to create equity and safety in Jewish communities, especially pay equity, paid leave, and accountability & repair. Celebrating her 10th year at WRN, she is passionate about supporting rabbis, often coaching WRN members through the joys and challenges of their rabbinates, whether it be reflecting on sermons/ programming, navigating difficult relationships or conversations, or thinking about the bigger questions of work and life.

Connect with Mary for a conversation with open hearted listening, as we think together to help you find your path forward no matter the presenting issue, small or large.