Rabbi Suzanne Offit

Rabbi Suzanne Offit was ordained at the Hebrew College Rabbinical School, which she entered enthusiastically as one of its founding students in 2004. (Like Rabbi Akiva, she started her deep Jewish learning in earnest at 40; unlike Rabbi Akiva, she experienced tremendous guilt when glorious hours of Jewish learning took her away from her children.) She is a Board Certified Chaplain and serves as the Palliative Care chaplain in post-acute services at Hebrew SeniorLife in Boston. Her focus is geriatrics and end-of-life work with patients and families. Rabbi Offit is dedicated to understanding through her many experiences and research how best to serve vulnerable populations in our society and how substance use disorder, moral injury, chronic illness and racism affect families. She is the immediate past Chair of the Hadassah Foundation. Among other institutions, she has served on the board of Gann Academy, is the long serving Chair of the Pluralism Committee (which brings together rabbis and educators from across the Jewish spectrum who are dedicated to living pluralism in the high school experience), and is on the founding board of Zaggo Care, an organization dedicated to helping patients and families navigate the health care system during a health crisis. She is married to Andy, and together they have three boys. She also loves agrarian activities, beekeeping, biking and poetry.