Shaarei Chesed:
Comfort & Support with Advanced Illness
The Wailing of the Shofar - A High Holy Day Discussion for Those Who are Bereaved.
Join Rabbi Dr. Joe Ozarowski and Tracey Lipsig Kite, LCSW for a discussion about the unique challenges and opportunities of experiencing the High Holy Days when you are in mourning. Tuesday evening, August 24th. Click here for more details.
To be added to the JHNC mailing list, click here and choose JHNC
Shaarei Chesed is the Jewish Community’s response to advanced illness. We partner with hospice and palliative care programs in the Chicago area and address the physical, emotional, religious, and spiritual needs of patients and families in a Jewish context.
Through Shaarei Chesed, hospice and palliative care services are provided in a religiously and culturally Jewish atmosphere that is crafted through Jewish chaplaincy, trained volunteers, Jewish ritual materials and sensitivity training.
Participants receive education and counseling for issues such as spirituality, ethics and bereavement. Our services are provided by social workers, Jewish chaplains and trained volunteers. Shaarei Chesed also connects patients and families to the multitude of organizations, services and community resource.
Shaarei Chesed is Hebrew for Gates of Loving-kindness. Hospice and palliative care reflect the Jewish values of honoring life, respecting human dignity and showing kindness to patients and their families coping with advanced illness.
Hospice and Palliative Care
Palliative care offers support and symptom management for patients and families faced with advanced illness. It is designed to improve the quality of life by keeping the patient as comfortable, pain-free, active and alert as possible while helping families plan for the future. Palliative care can be provided with life extending interventions such as chemotherapy, dialysis or ICU admittance.
Hospice is a compassionate, patient-centered approach to medical care and support for people at the end of life and their families. It focuses on maintaining dignity, increasing quality of life, and providing comfort, including pain and symptom control. Hospice services are covered by many insurance policies, including Medicare, and can be provided in a patient’s home, nursing home, hospital room or at inpatient hospice sites.
“Palliative and hospice care provide excellence in pain and symptom control, well-developed models of psychosocial support, and the tools to sort through the transition to a respectful and dignified decline and death. Shaarei Chesed represents an excellent starting point for patients and families to realistically consider options and resources. It deeply respects the rights of individuals to make decisions consistent with their values, and bring expertise and a Jewish perspective to the discussions.”
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Dr. Larry H. Goldberg, Palliative Care physician, Medical Director and JHNC advisory committee member
“The comfort of palliative and hospice care is healing for the spirit at the time when we can no longer assume there will be a cure of the body. The Mi-Sheberach, the central Hebrew prayer for the sick, asks for “refuat hanefesh u’refuat haguf”, healing for body and soul.
Sometimes, the body will not heal or be cured; we still ask for healing of the soul.”
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Rabbi Dr. Joseph S. Ozarowski, JHNC Chaplain
Meet our preferred providers
Seasons Hospice.
Click here to learn more about their services.
Midwest Palliative and Hospice CareCenter.
Click here to learn more about their services.
Information about hospice services is now available in Russian!
Click the links below to download the Russian materials and the corresponding English materials.
Welcome to Shaarei Chesed - what is hospice?
Russian English
Jewish Pathways - Difficult Decisions, Judaism Can Help
Russian English
Who Pays for What - Making Sense of Payment for Care
Russian English
Click here to learn Tips to Help Those Facing a Serious Illness
Click here to learn Tips about Making a Shiva Call
