Credential expansion for working clergy: Rabbis, cantors, and chaplains often pursue CPE units to qualify for hospital, hospice, or military chaplaincy positions, or to deepen the pastoral dimensions of their congregational work.

A distinctly Jewish framework: The Academy is the first Jewish graduate institution in the United States to prepare students for board certification through an ACPE-accredited CPE program. Your training is grounded in Jewish text, tradition, and theological reflection, not added on as an afterthought.

A schedule that fits yours: The super-extended format, stretching over the course of an academic year, is designed to accommodate the schedules of most busy professionals. The cohort meets once per week for 3.5 hours, with no instruction on Shabbat, throughout the fall holidays, or over Pesach. In addition, there is a five-week break between the fall and spring semesters.

Accredited supervision and recognized training: AJRCA’s CPE program is independently accredited by ACPE, Inc. and has been fully accredited since 2024. Units completed at the Academy carry recognition within the broader CPE community.

A pathway toward board certification: AJRCA’s CPE units are accepted by ACPE, Inc., the National Association of Jewish Chaplains (NAJC), and the Association of Professional Chaplains (APC) toward board certification as a chaplain.

Format: CPE cohorts meet once each week for 3.5 hours and mirrors the Academy’s academic calendar for holidays and breaks between semesters. Each completed two consecutive-semester sequence yields one accredited CPE unit. Students may complete multiple units.

Time Commitment: The unit is presented in a super-extended format to accommodate busy schedules. In addition to 100 hours of instructional time, including two Spiritual Care Seminars, also offered via Zoom, students are required to complete 300 hours of supervised spiritual caregiving, either in clinical settings or within their current congregational or professional responsibilities.

Clinical Pastoral Education combines supervised clinical practice with structured reflection and peer learning. As a CPE student at AJRCA, you will:

Dynamic Fieldwork and Placement: CPE Educators encourage students to complete their fieldwork in clinical settings, such as hospitals, hospices, geriatric centers, or rehabilitation facilities, where they provide direct pastoral care to patients, families, and staff. AJRCA partners with sites in Los Angeles and throughout the United States and assists students in finding an appropriate placement, whether at a hospital where they (or we) have no prior affiliation or in a city without an approved clinical site. Students may also complete their clinical hours within their current congregational or professional responsibilities.

Core Chaplaincy Skills: Charting, interviewing, writing verbatims, creating ethical wills, maintaining personal spiritual journals, and developing genograms are just a few of the essential skills students will develop through their CPE experience. Students learn to function as members of a clinical treatment team, providing comprehensive spiritual care tailored to their specific placement.

Supervised Group Reflection: Students meet regularly with their CPE Educator and peer cohort to reflect on their clinical experiences and examine their emotional responses and assumptions. For CPE students, professional development is also spiritual development, an opportunity to cultivate greater clarity, growth, and self-awareness as individuals, professionals, and caregivers.

Spiritual Care Within a Jewish Framework: Each year of study focuses on a different theme, drawing on Jewish texts and tradition. Themes might include spiritual assessment, the theology of spiritual care, and the classics of spiritual growth.

CPE for Clergy & Professionals is designed for:

• Ordained rabbis, cantors, Jewish educators, and communal professionals seeking to add CPE units to their existing credentials or deepen their pastoral capacity within their current roles.
• Professionals whose work brings them into regular contact with people experiencing illness, loss, transition, or crisis.
• Non-Jewish clergy and professionals are also encouraged to apply. Interfaith connection is vital to the Academy’s approach to spiritual care.

You do not need to be enrolled in an AJRCA degree program to apply.

To inquire about CPE, contact our Director of Admissions, Robin Federman, at rfederman@ajrca.edu. Robin will guide you through the application process, including:

• Verification of prior credentials and current professional role
• Discussion of clinical placement options
• Confirmation of academic prerequisites (typically minimal for working clergy)
• Tuition and scheduling

We recognize that you are already serving, that the pastoral work you do is real, often demanding, and often invisible. CPE is not a course of remediation. It is a discipline of deepening: a chance to bring your accumulated experience into a structured space of reflection, supervision, and growth, alongside others doing the same work.

If you are unsure whether AJRCA’s CPE program is the right fit for your situation, we welcome a conversation. The process begins with a clear-eyed look at what you bring and what you are seeking.