Brief Description
Rabbi Drew Kaplan served as the Director of Pastoral Care at a senior living facility throughout most of the COVID-19 pandemic, providing spiritual, Jewish, and emotional support to older adults during an extraordinarily challenging period marked by isolation, uncertainty, illness, and loss. Having begun working there in late May 2020 with a three-week overlap period with his predecessor, he took over as that position in mid-June 2020. For the first nearly two years, it was called Cedar Village, although upon a change in management & ownership on 11 April 2022, its name was changed to Majestic Care of Cedar Village. For his first 25 months, his position was Director of Pastoral Care, although in summer 2022, the full title became Director of Pastoral Care & Jewish Life.
He served as Cedar Village’s “Pandemic Rabbi”, which was certainly an interesting professional experience, about some of which he spoke on a panel discussion in February 2021, as well as on a podcast in January 2022.
Duties
In this role, Rabbi Drew:
- Provided pastoral care and spiritual support to residents and their families.
- Visited with residents individually, offering conversation, companionship, prayer, and emotional support.
- Supported residents and families through illness, end-of-life experiences, grief, and bereavement.
- Led Jewish religious services, holiday observances, and educational programming.
- Taught Torah and other Jewish texts to residents.
- Helped maintain the facility’s Jewish character and traditions through its transition from Cedar Village to Majestic Care of Cedar Village.
- Provided pastoral support to staff members dealing with the emotional demands of caring for older adults.
- Worked with residents of diverse religious backgrounds and helped address their individual spiritual needs.
- Collaborated with community rabbis, clergy members, families, and Jewish organizations to support residents.
- Developed alternative approaches to spiritual engagement during COVID-related restrictions when normal gatherings and visitation were impossible.
Key Accomplishments
- Began serving Cedar Village towards the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic and provided consistent pastoral support to an especially vulnerable population throughout the crisis.
- Developed creative approaches to Jewish learning and spiritual engagement when residents were unable to gather normally, including televised Torah programming (an archive of such scheduling is available here).
- Helped residents maintain connections to Jewish tradition, community, and religious life despite prolonged pandemic restrictions.
- Provided pastoral presence to residents and families through illness, death, grief, and the isolation created by COVID-19.
- Helped preserve and strengthen Jewish life at the facility during its 2022 transition from Cedar Village to Majestic Care of Cedar Village.
- Built meaningful relationships with residents and became a trusted source of spiritual and emotional support within the community.
Portfolio of Publications
He created quite a portfolio of publications while serving this population:
- He published a weekly Shabbat Newsletter, the archive of which you can find here, which he distributed to the Jewish residents (and gentile residents who request it).
- He created a YouTube channel, which included such features as weekly Torah portion discussions, a Jewish art series, and more, which he then used to broadcast this content to the residents for the weekends.
- As he was there for the 25th Anniversary of Cedar Village, he published a collection of essays looking back on Cedar Village’s first 25 years.
Media Coverage
He received media coverage in The American Israelite:
- 24 February 2022 – Chanukah Celebrations Return to Cedar Village
- 27 January 2022 – Conversations with a Rabbi (and related post)
- 1 July 2021 – Creative initiatives for older adults here to stay (and related post)
- 29 April 2021 – A Remembrance of the History of Cedar Village (and related post)
- 25 June 2020 – Cedar Village Welcomes New Director of Pastoral Care