Ma’agalei Nefesh Association – the Center for Mental Health, Community, and Halacha – is seeking a Social Worker to join its professional team and accompany the organization’s rabbinic training courses.
We work to connect the world of Torah and community with professional understanding of mental health, through rabbinic training, community support, and the development of professional resources.
Job Description
The role requires the ability to hold a complex emotional–professional learning space that brings together rabbis, professionals, and people with lived experience in the field of mental health.
The social worker serves as a consistent professional presence throughout the training days, supporting learning processes, processing emotional content, and assisting in making clinical knowledge accessible and in referring cases as needed.
The main emphasis of the role is on group facilitation and process support, alongside clinical abilities and experience (a significant advantage).
What you will do
Professional accompaniment of rabbinic training courses
- Attendance at at least 90% of the sessions
- Availability for brief conversations with participants throughout the day
- Professional presence during breaks and before and after each training day
Group facilitation
- Leading group processing sessions
- Facilitating reflections and emotional processing after intensive or complex days
- Assisting in conceptualizing processes and deepening learning
Ongoing professional support
- Identifying participants under emotional strain and providing initial support
- Contributing to a safe and professional group climate
- Delivering two professional workshops in each training cycle
Teamwork
- Working in collaboration with the course director and professional staff
- Participation in team meetings and process evaluation
- Follow-up with participants as needed
Requirements
mobility
Education and Experience
- Bachelor’s degree in Social Work and registration in the Social Workers’ Registry
- Experience in group facilitation and emotional process support
- Experience working with people coping with mental illness and/or their families – a significant advantage
Professional Knowledge
- In-depth familiarity with the mental health system in Israel – treatment frameworks, rights, institutions, and services
- Ability to refer to appropriate agencies when necessary
- Ability to identify risk situations (suicidality, mental crisis, triggers) and provide initial response
Role-Specific Professional Skills
- Ability to hold a complex space integrating rabbis, professionals, and people with lived experience
- Ability to mediate between lecturers/participants and the group – reflection, validation, mediation, and professional conceptualization
- Professional confidence to intervene and add a clinical perspective in real time
- High sensitivity to identifying participants in distress
- Strong ability to read group dynamics and identify underlying processes
- Comfort working with mixed groups (women and men, rabbis and rabbanit, diverse religious backgrounds)
- Sensitivity to the rabbinic and community world
- Understanding of role boundaries between rabbi and inquirer
Personal Qualities
- Ability to hold complex emotional content over time
- Self-regulation and professional boundaries
- Ability to maintain boundaries while offering accessibility and human warmth
- High level of attentiveness to those around you
What We Offer
✔ A meaningful and unique professional role
✔ Work in a value-driven, multidisciplinary environment
✔ Opportunity to influence the training of community leadership
Unfortunately, we can only reply to relevant candidates.