With the 2025 spring semester in full swing, we are delighted to highlight our talented and dedicated community members.
Today we are thrilled to spotlight AJRCA alumna, Chaplain Ruth Belonsky.
For many of us, childhood experiences and relationships are good predictors of life’s path. For Chaplain Ruth Belonsky, the lessons and skills she learned as a young person led her to chaplaincy and a life of deep meaning and purpose.
Chaplain Belonsky grew up in South Africa in an Orthodox (and later, Reform) Jewish home. As a young girl, she visited the sick with her mother, and joined the Chevra Kadisha, a group of people who oversee the Jewish ceremonial tradition of preparing a body for burial.
Many years later and a continent away, Chaplain Belonsky join was ordained as a chaplain at AJRCA. Now, in addition to preparing the dead for burial, she continues to help those who are dying, often singing or playing her violin at their bedside.
Chaplain Belonsky was one of AJRCA’s first three chaplaincy students, joining the Academy in 2003 at age 63. She currently serves as secretary of the Alumni Association. Part of her motivation in becoming a chaplain was to serve non-affiliated members within the Jewish community.
It’s clear from her work and her mission that Chaplain Belonsky is an extraordinary individual with many talents. She was an activist against the Apartheid government, serving as an elected member of the City Council in East London, South Africa, and was instrumental in advancing civil and equal rights for Black South Africans, ensuring they had access to public transportation, parks, swimming pools, libraries, and medical facilities.
Her advocacy work forced her and her family to emigrate to the United States in 1979. It was here that she developed an interest in mental health advocacy after observing mental health issues within her own family. She currently serves on the Executive committee and was the chair of the Faith Based Advocacy Council (FBAC) for the LA County Department of Mental Health. The FBAC’s mission is to focus individual recovery on spirituality, mental health, and personal strength.
Chaplain Belonsky retired after 10 years as senior chaplain at Providence Little Company of Mary in Torrance, California, now serving as an Independent Community Chaplain as well as co-leading prayer and healing services at Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue.
Aside from her work as a chaplain and an activist, Ruth Belonsky is also a playwright. Her play, The Great Escape, will be produced in early 2025 by The Braid Theater.
We should all stay tuned for her next adventure!
Written by Susan Casamassima
She is a remarkable person. Unceasingly cheerful and empathetic her presence at prayer services is always a major addition to the service. She’s warm, funny and charming and I’m proud to call her “friend”.