In 2011, when we founded Kashouvot, the notion of spiritual care was completely alien in Israel. Today, Kashouvot is the largest provider of spiritual care training in Israel, pioneering in-service training for staff and implementing spiritual care in hospitals all around the country.
With your support, the impact and relevance of spiritual care will continue and become and gradually become an unquestioned feature of medical care in Israel.
Our annual budget is approximately $400,000 and your support could allow us to build capacity, scale up the programs, and reach more patients and families. We receive some contribution from the hospitals, income from students, and donations from individuals and foundations in Israel, the U.S. and Canada. We hope to continue and expand all our current programs in 2025-26, reaching new hospital departments and showing them the benefits of spiritual care.
Those are the projects that we need to fund for Year 2026. We welcome your partnership in any of the projects listed below and would be happy to meet and tell you more about the programs and see which ones would be the best match for your interests.
1. Spiritual Care professional training
Kashouvot has grown to become the largest training center for spiritual caregivers in Israel. In 2025-26 we train 42 students in our two-year program of Clinical Pastoral Education (C.P.E.). Our students are interns in 30 departments in those medical centers and in more than 15 hospitals and geriatric settings all around the country.We bring Spiritual Care to patients, family members and healthcare staff in geriatric care, internal medicine, oncology, hematology, neurology, gynecology, urology, intensive care, dialysis and maternity. Every year of internship, our students provide an average of 9,000 spiritual care individual sessions.
- Cost of the project: $ 175,000
- Income – student fees: $ 105,000
- Funding needed: $ 70.000
2. Professional Chaplains in Hospitals
We continue to provide spiritual care in hospitals with our staff of experienced chaplains, certified caregivers from a variety of cultural and religious backgrounds. We employ seven chaplains in various hospitals during 2026 and they provide thousand of individual spiritual care sessions.
- Cost of the project: $ 120,000
- Income – hospitals: $ 60,000
- Funding needed: $ 60,000
3. Healing Circles “Grief and Growth”
We created a new project of Grief Support Groups according to a model adapted to Israel. Since October 7, our country has suffered from collective trauma and grief. Sadly, thousands of families are grieving the loss of family members both civilians and soldiers. The number of people who need bereavement counseling is hard to evaluate as Israel has never dealt with such an event. As chaplains, we are able to accompany and comfort people during this process. The Healing Circles are lead by chaplains who were trained by Kashouvot and include group support meetings and Spiritual Care individual sessions. During 2025 we organized twelve groups of “Healing Circles” and plan to develop the model in larger numbers around the country from January 2026.
- Cost of the project: $ 40,000
- Income – participants: $ 10,000
- Houston Jewish Fed. $ 10,000
- Funding needed: $ 20,000
4. Courses for professionals and general audience
In the coming year, we will continue to expand the training department and courses for healthcare professionals and the general public as well as for our growing alumni community. We witness the meaningful effect of spreading knowledge and beneficial tools among professionals and the general audience in order to create openness and interest in the large public. Our successful partnership with Bet Rivka Medical Center offers us opportunities to organize in-service training for a variety of health-care professionals in the Kupat Holim Klalit, the largest HMO in Israel. Our courses provide tools from the world of Spiritual Care and enrich any professional, family caregiver and volunteer. We offer a wide range of courses for professionals as nurses, social workers, physicians as family caregivers and volunteers.
- Cost of the project: $ 30,000
- Income from HMO: $ 10,000
- Funding needed: $ 10,000
5. Restorative Retreats
We are exploring new opportunities to bring Spiritual Care out of the hospitals and into the community including offering retreats for people in need of healing, self-care or reflection in their personal or professional lives (medical staff, people with chronic illness, caregivers, people in life transitions, families wishing to say goodbye to a loved one, and various tour groups). Our staff includes spiritual caregivers who are also experienced in art therapy, social work, yoga, movement, and biblio-therapy.
- Cost of the project : $ 40,000
- Income – participants: $ 10,000
- Funding needed: $ 30,000
6. A Home for Kashouvot
Kashouvot was founded close to fifteen years ago and the range of our activities is growing. Until now, our staff has been working on site – in hospitals, nursing homes and from their home. Now we know that renting a house for Kashouvot would give us the opportunity to train our future chaplains in better conditions, organize in-service training for medical and geriatric staff, open new courses and host small retreats and ceremonies for families. We are looking for support to cover the cost for a yearly rental for a small home in the center of Israel.
Cost and funding needed: $ 50,000