About Us

Yad LaNefesh (former Zimrat Yah) is a cooperative program between the non-profit organizations "Zimrat Yah" and "Life's Door" which has been running for the past seven years. The program was founded in 2008 by Rabbi Hanna Klebansky when she was a student in the CPE program at Machon Schechter. As an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, she saw a need in the field to provide culturally sensitive spiritual care services to immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

Almost 7 seven years we provide Spiritual Care Training Program based on Clinical Pastoral Education model. More the 16 our graduates serve as spiritual care providers in different medical institutions all over Israel.

We also provide private spiritual care services.

We have different workshops and support groups for people in crisis or their families.

The services is in Hebrew and Russian languages.

Our Mission

To create professional spiritual care services based on deep understanding that human wellbeing includes 3 basic components – physical , emotional and spiritual health.

Our work goals:

• To create a protected, safe space for dialogue, to build trust and respect between the spiritual caregiver and the person being cared for.
• To improve the quality of life of the person being cared for and their family by connecting to the internal world of the person being cared for.
• To connect to the soul's spiritual strengths, to his feelings, to try to understand the meaning of life for this particular patient.
• To strengthen the inner resources of the person being cared for.
• To accompany elders and patients facing their anxieties.

Working Principles

Individualized approach: Caregivers need to understand how the elder perceives his life before aging – what were the loves and the habits. Spiritual care must be individualized according to the personal story of each elder.

Culturally sensitive approach: It is important that the caregiver meets the elder or the patient out of cultural sensitivity to the characteristics, the strengths and the challenges that distinguish the population of immigrants from the FSU from the perspective of cultural and from the perspective of the crises of immigration.

Focus on work with the family: In working with elderly immigrants it is important to give the family information about what is going on with the elder, so that they can give an appropriate response, including to say goodbye, to ask forgiveness and to have closure. .

Strengthening social belonging: It is important to encourage belonging to groups of their age peers, in order to help seniors to fill their lives that have been emptied. It is important to help the elder to face the pressing question: what can fill their lives other than grandchildren?

Our programs

• Spiritual care training program based on Clinical Pastoral Education model. 800 hours study includes 400 hours theory and group process and 400 hours clinical practices with personal supervision.
• Support groups for people in crisis or their family members
• Workshops on emotional and spiritual growth contexts.
• Private spiritual care services