About

Cancer is so much more than a physical experience. It is an emotional experience, and for many, a spiritual experience. Sharsheret has been committed to providing confidential, free psychosocial spiritual support to help those impacted by breast cancer, or ovarian cancer, for almost 25 years.  

With one in eight women diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime, and one in forty people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent at heightened risk for an array of cancers, it is critically important that community leaders are also able to provide impacted community members with appropriate emotional and spiritual support.

Sharsheret’s Global Health Leadership Training Institute was founded in 2021 with the generous support of Micah Philanthropies to provide in-depth training to rabbis and other clergy, Jewish professionals, and lay leaders to ensure sensitive, appropriate support is available to community members in need as they navigate a cancer experience.

Each training cohort covers topics such as an introduction to understanding cancer, where being Jewish might intersect with a cancer diagnosis, how cultural nuances can impact diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship, spiritual concerns, and the creation of caring community and how that impacts both healing and the community-at-large.

Trainings are customized to meet the distinct needs of each organization. 

Those who complete the training will receive a certificate indicating expertise in the needs of those facing breast or ovarian cancer.

For more information about this program, read this recent article published by JTA.