Event To Showcase New Shlichus Opportunity For Young Couples
Shlichus-minded couples are invited to explore a powerful new Shlichus opportunity through full-time medical shlichus. Taking place at the JCM, the event will showcase how Shluchim can now make their full-time shlichus servicing entire regional healthcare and hospital systems.
After decades of keeping Judaism at a distance, an elderly Los Angeles patient named Jack agreed to put on tefillin for the first time during a hospital stay.
The moment grew out of an ongoing relationship with Rabbi Mendy Begun, a hospital shliach who had first met Jack months earlier and listened as he described the painful experience that had pushed him away from Jewish life.
“Before I left, he told me, ‘You’ve made me feel happier to be Jewish,’” Rabbi Begun recalled.
Jack’s story reflects the kind of sustained connection at the center of “Discover a New Frontier: Full-Time Hospital Shlichus,” an upcoming event for yungerleit couples considering a shlichus serving Jewish patients, families, caregivers, and medical professionals across an entire city.
Presented by Chabad on Call and the New Shliach Desk at Merkos 302, the event will take place Tuesday, August 11, 2026, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. on the lower level of the Jewish Children’s Museum.
Participants will hear from Shluchim serving major medical communities and learn about the opportunities, daily realities, training, mentorship, and practical steps involved in building a sustainable full-time Hospital Shlichus.
The work extends far beyond hospital rooms. A Shliach and Shlucha can connect Jewish doctors, nurses, therapists, residents, researchers, administrators, medical students, and their families across a city. Many work in demanding environments without an established Jewish community around them.
Patients often face fear and uncertainty far from home. Families wait through long nights. Healthcare professionals carry the emotional strain of difficult cases. By building relationships across hospitals, clinics, medical schools, rehabilitation centers, hospices, and private practices, a couple can help create a connected Jewish community within the city’s healthcare system.
“Many cities have Jewish patients, families, and medical professionals spread across hospitals, clinics, and medical institutions without a dedicated Jewish presence connecting them,” said Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, executive director of Merkos 302. “Hospital Shlichus gives a couple the opportunity to bring those people together, build lasting relationships, and help Jewish life take root across an entire city’s medical community.”
For decades, Shluchim have visited hospital rooms, comforted families, and supported people during illness. Full-time Hospital Shlichus expands that work into a dedicated mission serving both those receiving care and the professionals providing it.
Inspired by the Rebbe’s call to seek out every Jew with love, especially those who may be forgotten or downtrodden, Hospital Shlichus brings that vision to life in places where people may be isolated from family, community, and familiar Jewish life. A hospital room, staff lounge, medical office, or quiet conversation can become the beginning of a lasting connection.
“A Shliach and Shlucha can care for different parts of the same healthcare community,” said Chani Goldberg, director of Chabad on Call. “One may bring soup to a family waiting through the night, while the other sits with a patient, offers pastoral care, or checks in on a doctor carrying the weight of a difficult case. They can also connect Jewish medical professionals and their families across the city. Over time, those relationships can grow into a Jewish community that reaches across hospitals, clinics, and medical institutions.”
Among the presenters will be Rabbi Mendy Begun, Shliach to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles; Rabbi Shimon Partouche, director of Chabad Care of Montreal; and Rabbi Yoni Meadows, Chabad on Call’s Clinical Pastoral Education educator.
Clinical Pastoral Education, commonly known as CPE, provides supervised training in spiritual care inside hospitals and other clinical settings. The session will explore how that training can prepare Shluchim to listen carefully, work within medical institutions, and support people facing illness, grief, and uncertainty.
“A hospital cannot remove every uncertainty,” said Rabbi Mendy Shanowitz, director of the new shluchim desk at Merkos 302. “But a consistent Jewish presence can ensure that a patient or family has someone who will return, listen, and remain beside them.”
Speakers will also discuss daily life in full-time Hospital Shlichus, how to build relationships with hospitals and medical professionals, how to connect Jewish healthcare workers across a city, and the practical steps involved in establishing a sustainable Shlichus.
“Discover a New Frontier: Full-Time Hospital Shlichus” is open to couples exploring Shlichus. Shluchim are encouraged to bring or refer couples who may be suited to this path. Registration is available at newshliach.org/coc.
A few days after Jack first put on tefillin, Rabbi Begun returned to his hospital room and offered to help him do it again. Jack smiled.
“Seems to be working,” he said. “It’d be silly not to.”
