Elul is Here. You Don’t Have to Carry It Alone.
You’re working hard and carrying a lot—preparing for the High Holidays, supporting your community, showing up for your family, and somehow trying to take care of yourself in the process.
Sometimes, you just need someone to talk to.
The Elul Helpline is here to offer you a free, one-on-one, 30-minute coaching session with an experienced clergy coach. Whether you want to think through a sermon, troubleshoot a leadership challenge, find language for a difficult conversation, or simply get a little encouragement, this is a space just for you.
Since 2020, we’ve supported rabbis, cantors, and Jewish spiritual leaders during this season—and we’re here for you again this year.
How It Works
- Choose your coach from the list below.
- Register for one free 30-minute session. *
*Limit one session per participant. Please register for only one session with one coach.
Rabbi Ana Bonnheim is the founding executive director of the Jewish Learning Collaborative.
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 Mem Global (formerly 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, ongoing experimentation, 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, trying something new, creating consensus, building teams, navigating organizational dynamics, and bringing your vision to life (or articulating your vision).
Rabbi Menachem Creditor serves as Scholar-in-Residence at UJA-Federation New York and is the founder of Rabbis Against Gun Violence. A prolific writer, Rabbi Creditor has authored and edited over thirty books, including A Rabbi’s Heart, and After October 7: Essays. With millions of views of his daily Torah videos and essays, his leadership has helped shape national conversations on gun violence prevention, LGBTQ inclusion, Zionism, Interfaith organizing, and Jewish diversity. Rabbi Creditor’s music, including the well-known song Olam Chesed Yibaneh, is sung in communities around the world.
He is a Senior Lecturer at the Academy for Jewish Religion and speaks widely about the role of faith in building a more compassionate world.
Connect with Menachem for conversations about spirituality, social justice, text, Israel, and congregational life.
Rabbi Daniel Kraus is an educator, strategist, and leader committed to strengthening Jewish identity and engagement. Originally from Melbourne, Australia, he holds a BA in Management and Marketing and an MBA from Yeshiva University, along with rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg in Jerusalem. Rabbi Kraus was named one of The Jewish Week’s “36 Under 36” emerging Jewish leaders. Currently, he serves as Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at the Birthright Israel Foundation, where he leads the development of strategic alliances and partnerships to drive support for the Birthright Israel program and initiatives worldwide. Rabbi Kraus is also the Director of Community Education at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun (KJ) on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where he co-directs the KJ Beginners program, the community engagement arm servicing Jews from all backgrounds. Previously, he served as the Director of the Downtown location of Manhattan Jewish Experience (MJE), where he cultivated a thriving community for young Jewish professionals. Rabbi Kraus lives in New York City with his wife, Rachel, and their four children.
Connect with Daniel for a conversation about strategic partnerships, community education, or building engagement programs for young Jewish professionals.
Rabbi Mary L. Zamore is the Executive Director Emerita and Senior Advisor to the Women’s Rabbinic Network (WRN). Drawing on 18 years as a congregational rabbi and more than a decade accompanying hundreds of rabbis through the joys and challenges of rabbinic life, she understands both the sacred calling and the daily realities of serving Jewish communities. She knows that the deepest questions of the rabbinate are rarely only about services, programs and sermons; they are also about leadership, relationships, purpose, and sustaining oneself while caring for others.
Connect with Mary for open-hearted listening and thoughtful conversation as you prepare for the High Holy Days, navigate a difficult situation, or seek clarity around the questions that matter most to your rabbinate and your life.
Dr. Betsy Stone is a nationally known, retired psychologist who works with clergy and other Jewish professionals throughout North America, Australia and Europe. Drawing on years of experience as an adjunct lecturer at Hebrew Union College and clergy support groups she has facilitated for over a decade, she understands the lives and challenges of clergy — whether in pulpits or organizations.
Connect with Betsy for an experienced listening ear in addressing issues of burnout, trauma, exhaustion and moral injury.
Rabbi Asher Lopatin was the rabbi of the Modern Orthodox Anshe Sholom in Chicago (350 families) and now is the founding rabbi of the MO Kehillat Etz Chayim in Detroit (65 families), while also working full time as the JCRC director in Ann Arbor. He has ordination from Rav Ahron Soloveichik and Yeshiva University, as well as an MPhil in Medieval Arabic thought from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. Asher is passionate about creating a welcoming, meaningful community and reaching out to the broader world and engaging in challenges both internal to the Jewish world and those the entire world faces. Always eager to think outside the box, Asher is married to Rachel Lopatin and they have four children.
Connect with Asher for conversations about meaningful community-building, Jewish thought, global and Jewish challenges, and leading with purpose across roles.
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.
