Interview with Nadia Siritsky, July 6, 2018

THOMPSON: Hello, my name is Hannah Thompson. As a biology major from Louisville pursuing medicine, I became interested in the Jewish concept of tikkun olam, Jewish Hospital, and the way both have impacted Louisville and the global medical community through Jewish Hospital's medical advancements and mission for social justice, advocacy, philanthropy, and their heritage. With the support of an undergraduate research scholarship from the Interdisciplinary Program in Jewish Studies, I am conducting interviews as part of the Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence Jewish Kentucky Oral History Project, housed at the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky. Today is July 6, 2018, and it is my great honor and pleasure to interview Rabbi Dr. Nadia Siritsky, the vice president for mission at Jewish Hospital. Thank you, rabbi, for joining us today.

SIRITSKY: Thank you.

THOMPSON: To begin the interview, I'm going to ask you a few questions about yourself and family background. For the record, can you please state your name?

SIRITSKY: My name is Rabbi Dr. Nadia Siritsky.

THOMPSON: Can you please tell me about your family background?

SIRITSKY: So, I am an only child. I was born in Montreal, Canada. My father is a Holocaust survivor. He was born in Paris. He did not know that he was Jewish until the Nazis took his father to Auschwitz. And um, he was saved by his teacher and several other brave non-Jews. The day before his--the day before the Nazis were coming to his, um, first-grade school classroom in Paris, um, to round up all the Jewish kids, the teacher went to his home and talked to his mother and let them know. And, um, she got a fake passport and fake identity from her best friend. Um, he dyed--they dyed their hair blonde and they crossed 00:02:00over to the South of France where they were hidden by this teacher's cousin, and then that teacher's cousin sent them to other cousins, and they spent a lot of time hiding in the South of France. When he eventually--um, when the war was over and he grew up, um, he eventually moved to Canada, where he met my mother. And my mother was Catholic. She, um, was raised--born and raised in New Brunswick, Canada, and he told her he wanted her to convert to Judaism, because he didn't want Hitler to have won and for him to be the last Jew in his family. So she did convert to Orthodox Judaism. Um, she really wanted to be very religious. She was always a very religious, devout person. Um, my father had a 00:03:00lot of questions about God and organized religion. He wanted me to be Jewish, but he didn't want to give up eating bacon. (Thompson laughs) So, um, I grew up in that household with both of them. I was raised Jewish. My mother, however, when I was in my--around--when I was around twelve years old, my mother returned to the Catholic Church because she was missing that. She had converted for him, but not necessarily for herself. She stayed in the Catholic Church for a while, um, but saw it through adult eyes, um, and saw that there were things about Judaism that had started to speak to her. So she came to believe that she was bilingual: um, she had both Judaism and Catholicism as two languages to speak to God with. Um, so growing up, I grew up with this awareness of many different 00:04:00approaches to religion, and, um, a commitment to wanting to honor interfaith and interfaith families.

THOMPSON: Is that one of the reasons why you chose to become an interfaith chaplain?

SIRITSKY: Um, it's one of the reasons why I chose to become a rabbi. As I--I was pretty active in my synagogue growing up, and I, um, used to teach religious school, and I worked with a lot of kids and came to know a lot of people who either didn't convert or did convert, or when they wanted to get married, a Jew and a non-Jew together, were told by their rabbi that that was a bad thing, and so they would be forced to convert. And I started to feel like people being forced to convert was not a good thing.

THOMPSON: Um-hm.

SIRITSKY: So, one of the early impulses for wanting to become a rabbi was to work with interfaith families and specifically to pro--to, um, provide marriages, or to marry couples without conditions. So I have been, throughout my 00:05:00career and certainly here in Louisville, a leader in advocating for co-officiation with a rabbi and a Catholic priest or another clergyperson, and really wanting to honor--if couples are interfaith, both sides of that couple should be--um, have their spirituality acknowledged, and no one should feel forced to do anything against their will. And so that was a very big part of my wanting to, um, be a rabbi.

THOMPSON: That's great.

SIRITSKY: Not the only part, but it was definitely one part.

THOMPSON: A major part of it?

SIRITSKY: Um-hm.

THOMPSON: You talked about your father, who is a survivor of the Holocaust. What was it like growing up with a father who had survived the Holocaust? Did it impact your Jewish faith and heritage or anything like that?

SIRITSKY: He never talked about the Holocaust almost ever. Um, so what I knew about it was shared to me by my mother, who heard it from my grandmother's best 00:06:00friend, who was the one who had given them--

THOMPSON: --um-hm--

SIRITSKY: --the false papers. My father didn't want to talk about it; it was very upsetting to him. So, it was just a wall of silence.

THOMPSON: Oh.

SIRITSKY: And I spent a lot of time trying to learn and read about it. Um, my grandfather, my grandmother's third husband, was a survivor of Auschwitz. They had done medical experiments--

THOMPSON: --oh, wow--

SIRITSKY: --on him, and he talked about it a lot. Um, but my, my father and my grandmother never did. When my father got cancer, about fifteen years ago, he, um, changed his --his feelings about it, and he--also he started to learn and read about all of the Holocaust deniers, and so he has actually developed a new mission. He's eighty-five years old, and he, um, is very active in Montreal in the Jewish Holocaust survivors' movement. He helped start a museum. He actually 00:07:00was interviewed for oral history by a young student.

THOMPSON: Wow.

SIRITSKY: And I think she gave him the courage to speak about his faith. He wrote his autobiography, and at least four times a week he talks to students about his experiences. He goes all over Quebec--um, university students, high-school students, middle-school students--and he tells them about his story so that, um, people know that it really happened. So he's really embraced his voice later in life, and I think in a lot of ways, his experience with cancer made him realize how precious life is and, um, changed his approach.

THOMPSON: That's amazing. For the record, can you state your parents' names and what their occupations were?

SIRITSKY: So, um, my mother was--is--her name is Elisa (??) Siritsky. Her maiden 00:08:00name was Aline Leger, L-e-g-e-r, and she worked with Air Canada for I think fourteen years.

THOMPSON: Wow.

SIRITSKY: Um, but she became a homemaker when I was born. My father, Michel Siritsky, he, um, worked in tourism, in hotel industry, and, um, because he actually was hidden by Spanish-speaking farmers--

THOMPSON: --um-hm--

SIRITSKY: --during the war, he learned Spanish, and that became an important part of his career. He was the first, um, to develop travel between Canada and Cuba after Castro came into power. So he spent a lot of time in Cuba, traveling, um, teaching them how to develop their tourism industry. Um, he was president of Unitours, and, um, he recently won an award by the Canadian tourism industry for 00:09:00his pioneering work, um, in developing the tourism industry in Canada.

THOMPSON: That's amazing. Your parents seem to have a lot of great jobs, and your father especially with the museum and everything that he's doing. I think that's very important. Now that we've discussed your family background, please tell me a little bit about what it was like growing up in Montreal, Canada, with your family, and then we will proceed chronologically, beginning with your childhood.

SIRITSKY: So I, um--I grew up not just in Montreal but also in Cuba and also in France.

THOMPSON: Wow.

SIRITSKY: So I spent time in France with my grandparents, um, but I spent a lot of time in Cuba. My father was working, my mother was helping him, um, so the two of them were often working, and I, I grew up in--having an idyllic childhood on the beaches of Cuba, mostly in Veradero, and, um, just playing with local kids on the beach. Um, hours trying to crack coconuts. So that was a really 00:10:00wonderful, um, experience, and I developed a great love of Cuba. Um, I haven't been back since my teens, but--

THOMPSON: --um-hm--

SIRITSKY: --it was definitely a big formative part. I probably spent a good three months a year in Cuba, and, um, several months a year also in France. And so the rest of my time, obviously, in Montreal. Um.

THOMPSON: What were the Jewish populations like there, in Cuba, France, and Montreal?

SIRITSKY: So, um, in Cuba, there was a Jewish community, and we once in a while would bring them, whether it was medication or books or, um, things that they might need. Because of the embargo it was hard for them. Um, but I--it wasn't like a big part of my experience. And, and neither was it, really, in France. My grandmother, my grandparents weren't overly religious. My grandfather was very Zionist. He, um, was actually, I think, president of, um, the Technion at one 00:11:00point or something. I don't fully understand, because they all died when I was very young.

THOMPSON: Okay.

SIRITSKY: But, um, he talked a lot about, uh, Israel, and he actually bought us our first mezuzahs for our home, um, and installed them. But mostly Jewishly I grew up in Montreal, which has the highest concentration of Holocaust survivors outside of Israel. It is, uh, a very traditional sch--um, community. Um, at the time it was very big. It's shrunk a bit. Many people have gone to Toronto. But it was--it had, uh, free funded day schools, Jewish day schools, several, so, uh, very observant, um, very traditional. A lot of Sephardic Jews. Um, but I grew up in the one Reform synagogue. I spent some time at first in the Orthodox 00:12:00synagogue, but we eventually migrated to the Reform synagogue when I was about nine years old, be--and it was a better fit for our family.

THOMPSON: The Reform synagogue was?

SIRITSKY: It was a much better fit for us.

THOMPSON: At what age did you--

SIRITSKY: --I was about nine years old when--

THOMPSON: --nine years old--

SIRITSKY: --we started there. I used to go to the, um, Orthodox synagogue Shaar Hashomayim, and then, um, when I changed schools, it just wasn't convenient to go to their school three times a week, and the temple, which was once a week, was a better fit for our schedule--

THOMPSON: --um-hm--

SIRITSKY: --and the truth is that theologically it, it fit our family much more.

THOMPSON: That's great. In what ways did your family participate in the synagogue?

SIRITSKY: Um, mostly it was about bringing me to services and bringing me to religious school, and then I really, um, came to love it. It became a bit part of my life, and I started teaching, um. When I was probably about fourteen years old--

THOMPSON: --wow--

SIRITSKY: --I started teaching in the religious school, first just tutoring kids, and slowly, um, I was given actually, when I was sixteen, my own classroom of third and fourth grade, and I just really loved that. And I'd say that really helped cement my desire to work as a rabbi. I started leading services there, um, I became very active, um, in Hillel, and, and that really became a big part of my journey.

THOMPSON: Awesome. Can you describe some of the roles of Jewish tradition in your childhood, with your mother--your family being interfaith at one point, and what did your parents teach you about Judaism and Catholicism?

SIRITSKY: Um, I grew up with a Christmas tree as well. Um, my mother remembered having--that her priest used to, um, get mad at people for celebrating Christmas and saying--and used to say, "The Christmas tree is not what Christmas is about; 00:14:00Christmas is about the birth of Jesus." And so she had so many good memories of Christmas, um, growing up, that she wanted me to have those memories. Uh, she actually was the oldest of eight kids, and her, um, her mother was, um, in a wheelchair with polio, and so she was the one who really took care of a lot of those kids. In fact, when she was in eighth grade, she was, um, made to--her father made her quit school to take care of her younger brothers and sisters, and after a year, she managed to convince him to let her back to school. And she graduated, um--she did her eleventh and twelfth grade in the same year, and she graduated as valedictorian of her class. Um, but her, um--she went to Catholic school, and the nuns really gave her encouragement, and so that was a very big 00:15:00part of her. I think for me, I--we celebrated Hanukkah and we celebrated some of the holidays, we celebrated Shabbat sometimes, um, but really my approach to Judaism came when I started learning more about the Holocaust and through my own personal spiritual practice and reading. Um, I started really searching and reading books on philosophy when I was like eleven, and, um, I started reading--I read a book, the diary of Yogananda Paramahansa, and became really interested in Hinduism, and that really was what sparked my religious search. So I felt culturally Jewish, but I'd say religiously I started off really searching in Hinduism. I found a Hindu community. I did yoga and meditation and chanting 00:16:00with them. They were vegetarian, I was vegetarian; it was a great fit. About a year into that, my father gave me a book on Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, and I, I saw through that book that, um, a lot of what I loved about Hinduism was also present in Judaism. And since I felt a, an obligation to be Jewish in order to honor those who died so that I could be Jewish, and my mother's sacrifices, I, um, I really followed, um, that. But I came--in my Jewishness comes an appreciation for the ways in which all religions share similar sacred traditions. And I'd say that's a huge part of how I live out my rabbinate in, in, uh, current day. Um, but I'd say mostly my Judaism and my searches have been through books.

THOMPSON: Books and reading--

SIRITSKY: --reading--

THOMPSON: --about the different religions and traditions?

SIRITSKY: Um-hm. And I, I had--I've had an old prayer book in my house, and I used to pray every night. Um, so it was very much sort of self--

THOMPSON: --self-discovery--

SIRITSKY: --discovery, I'd say. I knew it was important to my parents, but it wasn't, um, something they--in fact, they--when I decided to become a rabbi, they were not particularly happy. My father was like, "I wanted you to be Jewish, but not that Jewish." Um, and he used to like make fun of my mother and be like, "You're such a perfectionist. You couldn't just have her be Jewish, she had to be a rabbi." (Thompson laughs) Um, and she was. She was like the one parent who was always, um, there in religious school and helping, volunteering. And several times, even in the Reform synagogue, the rabbi or people would make comments about the goy, and--the non-Jew. And like, I, um, I became very angry 00:18:00at the hypocrisy of that.

THOMPSON: Um-hm.

SIRITSKY: She was the only one who was there, volunteering, and cared, and the ethnicity--the ethnic approach to Judaism that says if you choose Judaism you're not as much of a Jew became something of an anathema to me. And, um, a very big part of what I've done in my personal religious life, I helped start the Society for Classical Reform Judaism, and, um, a big part of our approach is to offer an unconditional welcome of interfaith families and to articulate a universalistic post-ethnic approach to Judaism that focuses less on ritual and more on ethics, values, and spirituality.

THOMPSON: That's great. I actually read about that on the Darshan, um, Yeshiva Web site about your biography. And I understood that you lived and studied in the Orthodox community, but, like you said, you're a founding member of the Society of Classical Reform Judaism. So can you tell me about your beliefs and 00:19:00how the interfaith family kind of went into that and why you wanted to become a--why you chose Reform Judaism?

SIRITSKY: So I, um--I searched and searched more and more and became more active in the Jewish community, and I, um, majored in Jewish Studies at McGill University and just felt like there was so much to learn and I couldn't learn enough, and so I actually took a year off of--from McGill, and I went to Jerusalem, and I studied at Pardes, which is a yeshiva, an Orthodox egalitarian yeshiva. Um, even before I did that, I had started studying with a Chabad rabbi who was active at McGill University, and I studied Tanya with him. Um, he was incredibly supportive of me even though he knew I wanted to be a rabbi and he knew that I was committed to doing interfaith marriage, and nevertheless, he was 00:20:00just incredibly supportive, and his family was supportive. And when I was in Israel, I, I studied at Pardes. I did a couple of other leadership programs in ulpans and learned. And I came back to Montreal, continued learning with the Orthodox rabbi, and just soaking up as much as I could. And then I spent another year and a half in Jerusalem. Um, I was supposed to be--I was--when I applied for rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College, they were going to exempt me from the Jerusalem year, but I wanted to go back, and so--but I already exempted out, so I took, um, a lot of independent studies. I studied at a Conservative yeshiva, at another Orthodox yeshiva, at Hebrew University. Um, I also did an Israeli program, um, that was specific to teach Israeli teachers how to teach 00:21:00Jewish tradition, and it was about helping them learn about Jewish tradition and teaching it with secular Israeli, um, poetry. And for them, they knew the secular Israeli poetry but not the Jewish tradition. I knew, by then, Talmud, but not so much the secular, so--um, but it was in Hebrew, and it was just a wonderful learning experience. And I was very, very observant, very traditionally observant. I wore kippah, I wore tzitzit, which is a traditional male prayer garment, um, head coverings, um, tefillin. I prayed three times a day; I was very kosher; I observed Shabbat very strictly. Um, and this was--and I was sort of in the middle of my rabbinical school, my first year of rabbinical school, and I was noticing that my classmates were, um, not as traditionally observant as me. They were, um, you know, eating cheeseburgers and going to the 00:22:00movies on Shabbat. And I noticed in myself a part of me that was going--(clucks tongue)--You shouldn't do that, you know? And I was like, Wow, that--and I started thinking, okay, that judgment that I noticed in myself, I didn't like it in myself. Um, 'cause I, I just--I've always been like, fight for the underdog, and I hate judgy people. But I noticed it in myself, and I was like, Well, I believe, like philosophically, from Kabbalah to Hinduism to just my personal belief, that God is present in everyone and in everything, God is everywhere, and yet here I am judging one of the ways that God is present. And, um, so I decided that I needed to, um, deconstruct Judaism for myself and that I needed to put myself in their shoes and sort of try it out and see. Um, so I, I made a 00:23:00conscious decision to, um, stop being observant for a year and to see what parts of, um, Jewish ritual and tradition was meaningful to me and what parts I, um, was simply doing because I was told to do it. And so I really wanted to make informed decisions for myself. And, um, that was a difficult decision, but it was a very formative decision, and it ultimately led me to my current Reform practice. Um, but I would say that theologically, I, um, I appreciate orthodoxy, but I came to see that--I think for myself, like, I might have been a little OCD, just--I think there's an inherited component to that, and, um, the, the traditional observance did not help that part of who I was. So for myself, I 00:24:00came to feel like I had a healthier spirituality not being traditionally observant. But I still, um, remember it lovingly and miss it and am happy to advocate for it for other people. But I also believe that there should be room for everyone at the Jewish table.

THOMPSON: Um-hm.

SIRITSKY: And that's a core part of why I started to advocate for Classical Reform Judaism, not only because of its approach to interfaith families but because I noticed amongst my teachers in seminary a certain dismissiveness and judginess towards people who were, um, more Classical or who were less traditionally observant. And so my desire to fight for the underdog led me to become a very strong advocate for Classical Reform Judaism so that it could rightfully assert its place as, um, a member, an equal member, at the Reform 00:25:00Jewish table.

THOMPSON: I think that's very important too. You mentioned your time at Hebrew Union College. When did you know you wanted to be a rabbi, and what was it like attending Hebrew Union College?

SIRITSKY: So, I knew that I wanted to be a rabbi when I was probably twelve or thirteen. (adjusts microphone) I knew I wanted to be a rabbi when I was about thirteen. It was sort of as I was figuring out the role of Judaism in my life and watching what was going on with my parents, and just sort of--I had--I was in prayer. I was supposed to choose, in my school, did I want to go math and science, did I want to go art, or did I want to go political science or something like that? And I, I didn't know which way to choose because I didn't know what I wanted to do, so I started to pray. And I just had this sense that God w--it almost felt like a calling--

THOMPSON: --um-hm--

SIRITSKY: --that God wanted me to do this. Um, but then I kind of rebelled 00:26:00because I felt like the role of women in Judaism was not easy. Certainly in Canada, it didn't feel as easy. It's a much more traditional, um, culture. Um, and so I was majoring in math and psychology at McGill and then I switched. I was, um--I, I had a friend who told me to come to Hillel House for some kind of screening about a movie on women and Judaism, and they were offering pizza, uh, and I was hungry, so I went. And I was--I started watching Rabbi Elyse Goldstein, and she was, um, the first female rabbi in Canada. And she talked about her fight, and I realized that I had, um, given up on the fight without really trying and that the truth is, all of my free time was spent doing Jewish community organizing and that I should follow my passion, and so I switched 00:27:00immediately, the next day, to Jewish Studies. I will say that there's one other thing that made me decide that I was not sure I wanted to be a rabbi. When I was about fifteen, there was a female cantor in my synagogue, and there was politics between her and the senior rabbi. And I don't know all the details of it, but I know at the time I was very upset about how I felt like she was being treated. I actually spoke, and my parents also, spoke at a board meeting trying to get her--them to keep her. And, um, we lost. And I was disgusted by politics in the house of God. Um, and so I--that was another reason why I didn't want to be a rabbi. But I've come to realize--I came to realize as I got older that politics are everywhere, um, and that I should fight the battle to make things right instead of just giving up. Um, rabbinical school was, um, interesting for me 00:28:00because I was at a much higher level than all of my peers because of all of the studies I'd done prior to arriving. So I actually took classes with the year above me and did a lot of independent studies. Um, in many ways, they were incredibly supportive of that, but in other ways, um, I felt that my theology, which was, I came to learn, Classical Reform, was frowned upon by them. And I, I didn't like that, and I really questioned whether I wanted to be a rabbi or not. So I took a year off of rabbinical school, and I went and did a year, a little over a year's training in chaplaincy, and that was really my awakening to why I wanted to be a rabbi, because, um, I came to see that my experiences of feeling 00:29:00left out or excluded and all of the things that I felt at seminary were frowned upon were exactly what the other people needed. And so in learning how to do counseling, in learning how to be present for people who are going through a lot of difficulty, I came to have confidence that I could fulfill God's call to me. And, um, then I came--I returned to seminary to be ordained.

THOMPSON: That's great. I understand from the Indiana Center for Parish Nursing State Conference 2013 highlights, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, you worked as an interfaith chaplain at Beth Israel Medical Center and (??) Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery, along with the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services in New York City. What were some of your greatest challenges and most rewarding interactions with being a chaplain?

SIRITSKY: So, um, I would put two. Um, so number one was when I was at the 00:30:00Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services, I worked with, uh, people with profound mental illness, and, um, it took me a while to learn how to be present and support them. There were a couple of--there was one woman in particular who was not verbal. She used to rock and scream and curse, and that was pretty much it, and I, I really didn't know how to connect with her. Um, but I eventually found a way to do that, and in that moment of connecting with her, I, um, I realized the power of relationship to make God present, and, um, it was just a transformative moment. I think it helped me have confidence in myself, um, that I, I really was doing what God called me to do. Um, the other thing that really happened was around the same time that I was doing chaplaincy at Beth Israel, 00:31:00um, it was 9/11, and so I was working with the American Red Cross after September eleventh. I was one of two Spanish-speaking chaplains serving the entire city. I had to tell many children that their parents had passed away. Um, and walking with families to Ground Zero, um, blessing body parts that were discovered at the morgue. Um, I also lost a friend and had to bury her. And that was very transformative. One of the things that I came to see was how the people who coped the best were the ones connected to religious community, and I started to appreciate the value of community in a way that I'd never experienced before, and I wanted to be part of it. I also personally was getting some PTSD, Holocaust stuff, in New York, because there were so many bomb threats and anthrax scares, and so I decided that I wanted to leave New York and go into a 00:32:00congregation, and that's what ultimately led me to Louisville. And, um, that was really important decision which, um, transformed my life, 'cause I really fell in love with Louisville.

THOMPSON: That's great. Thank you for what you did, by the way, after 9/11, helping all those families. I'm sure that was very important to all of them. So once you came to Louisville, you pursued a master's of social work at U of L. What made you decide to pursue social work?

SIRITSKY: So I didn't do that immediately. I came to Louisville and I served as a rabbi, um, from 2002 to 2008, at the Temple. And, um, a year and a half into that, I started a senior adult program called Chavurat Shalom, which is still in existence today, and I did a lot of counseling with people. And I felt like I 00:33:00needed more counseling training, and the truth is, that was always my biggest love, and even in rabbinical school when I was thinking I wanted to drop out of rabbinical school, I was thinking I should go into social work and do counseling, that all I wanted to do was have private practice and do counseling. So, um, three years into ra--into my time at the temple, I switched to part-time, and I, um, started a part-time program at University of Louisville Kent School as a--in social work. I entered because I wanted to learn about counseling, but what ultimately, um, spoke to me the most and was the most exciting for my learning was actually all of my learning around policy and research, and, um, really appreciating the ways in which the larger systems of policy affect people's day-to-day lives, and that if I wanted to make change in 00:34:00this world, I needed to look at policy and advocacy. And I also really fell in love with research, and that's what pushed me to want to get my doctorate, so that I could do more research.

THOMPSON: That's great. I read on the Jewish Community of Louisville's Web site an article about you titled "Rabbi Siritsky Joins KentuckyOne as Vice President of Mission," and I learned that you chose psychosocial interventions in the management of chronic illness as a specialty. Why did you choose that, and what did you do with that specialty?

SIRITSKY: So I, um, was working at Jewish Family Career Services--that was my internship--and I was, um, working with, uh, a group of people who struggled with diabetes. And even in my work with people in the congregation, I saw a lot of people who struggled with diabetes or eating, and I came to really see that food and eating, um, played a big part in our health or lack thereof, and, um, 00:35:00that--and so I was interested in what would help. And so I, um, implemented some, uh, cognitive behavioral approaches and looked at the role of spirituality, and that was my, um, master's research project, and was able to show efficacy, um, that it's not just get better at eating but that there's a lot more--it's much more complex. Um, and that continues to undergird, obviously, work I do here in terms of the management of chronic illness.

THOMPSON: How did your work in chaplaincy and in social work prepare you for your current work and position here at Jewish Hospital?

SIRITSKY: This role is the coolest job that I never knew existed. Um, it's amazing. It is every--so, if you look at my resume, up until this point I was doing fundraising and policy and advocacy and counseling and hospice work and hospital work and congregational work and writing and--it was like all of those 00:36:00things, but they seemed like, um, disparate. And in this role, I get to do all of that in an integrated way, um, because it's about supporting the sacred mission of healing and, um, helping to connect it to the deeper faith heritage. Um, and it just--I don't even know how to say it. It's--I love it. Every single day, ev--I love everything I do. Um, I am honored by the incredible, um, people who work in healthcare, our doctors, nurses, aides, um, our environmental services workers, dietary food services, uh, uh, assistants. There are so many people who you wouldn't even think are related to healthcare, like our accountants--

THOMPSON: --um-hm--

SIRITSKY: --and they are still so committed to the mission of healing and caring for the underserved. And, um, my role is to support them, provide some, um, 00:37:00moral, spiritual leadership, um, but really also to encourage them and, um, to advocate for them, which are basically, like, personal characteristics that have followed me my whole life--

THOMPSON: --um-hm--

SIRITSKY: --like, to always advocate for what I believe in and for the people I believe in, and to advocate for the underserved and for justice. Um, so it's--I just love it.

THOMPSON: That's great. For the record, can you state what your current title is, and when and how did you come into this role?

SIRITSKY: So, um, vice president of mission, and, um, I am primarily at Jewish Hospital, but I do have current oversight with Frazier Rehab, Jewish Hospital Shelbyville, our ambulatory sites, and the KentuckyOne medical group. I started this role in, um, September of 2014, and at that time, I was also, um, vice 00:38:00president of mission with the University of Louisville Hospital, and my role was to preserve the Jewishness of Jewish Hospital and the secular academic nature of University Hospital within our larger, blended interfaith family of KentuckyOne Health, which, um, was primarily Catholic, and to help the Catholics understand the Jews and the Jews understand the Catholics and the secular academics understand each other and all of that. Um, I also had, last year, the opportunity to be the mission leader for Our Lady of Peace, and, um, for a year w--and so to be a mission leader for Catholic, um, organization. I still write every month for the archdiocese. Um, and I've had the opportunity to, um--I've had the opportunity to help Catholic Health Initiatives as it is in the process 00:39:00of aligning itself with Dignity Health to be the largest nonprofit Catholic healthcare provider. And so I've been able to support them and share lessons learned from KentuckyOne with them, um, which is a great honor. And I've also had the opportunity to serve with the Catholic Health Association, um, which oversees all Catholic hospitals, and to share some of, um, what we have done here at Jewish Hospital, for example, uh, policy on how to care for transgender patients in a way that honors our, um, core value of reverence, and to share that with other Catholic hospitals across the country. Um, so those are just profound honors. I got this job, like, by accident, or God, I think. Um, I was in the process of thinking that I wanted to move back to Louisville, and, um, there was a former president of my congregation who was aware of this position 00:40:00being created and said--and contacted me and said, "I know you don't want to go back to Louisville, but this job just sounds like you." And I was like, "Well, actually--(both laugh)--I do want to go back to Louisville, but I hadn't told anyone, so funny you should mention it." Um, so it was just a perfect aligning, and it has felt like God has led me every second of the way. Even in my interview, it was just--it felt meant to be.

THOMPSON: That's great. Um, can you please--you mentioned how Jewish Hospital maintains its Jewish identity. Can you please tell me about the ways that Jewish Hospitals aims to maintain part of its Jewish identity, especially with the merger with St. Mary's Healthcare in 2012, and then with KentuckyOne selling Jewish Hospital in 2017, and why maintaining a Jewish identity is important to your mission?

SIRITSKY: So, um, I'd say that one of the, the reasons why this position was created is there wasn't a rabbi in this role full-time, um, that was a senior 00:41:00leader. And, um, there were a lot of inadvertent, um, ex--situations where, for example, some--we at KentuckyOne like to start with a reflection, and sometimes people started with a prayer in front of a board meeting or--and they didn't mean to pray in a religiously exclusive way, but they did, and the Jews felt very, um, alienated. Um, and there were inadvertent Christmas decorations and things. It just--we live in a Christian world, and Christians are a minjor--a majority, and so a lot of people, however well intentioned, don't know much about Judaism and thought that they were honoring the Jewish heritage but didn't 00:42:00know enough about the Jewish heritage to do it in a way that was effective. And so, um, when I arrived, basically I--a lot of the leaders really were, like, um, including Ruth Brinkley, our CEO, said, you know, "We want to honor the Jewish heritage. It's so important to us. But we don't know how. Please help us." And that, um, yearning to have guidance on how to do it right, um, was so, um, touching to me. I was so, um--there were--there was a lot of anger from the Jewish community for a lot of reasons, um, but one of them, I think, is Jews have a fear of assimilation. Just like my father, they don't want to be the end 00:43:00of Jews and have Hitler win. They feel like they're supposed to be guardians of the Jewish legacies that they--that have been created and passed down from generation to generation. And at the same time that Jewish Hospital was going through changes, so too was Four Courts going through changes, which was the Jewish nursing home in Louisville. So too was the Jewish day school closing, Eliahu. So too was Federation and the Jewish community going through a lot of changes. So there was a lot of angst in Louisville about what is happening to our future. And that is not just in Louisville but within the larger American Jewish world. And so that angst led, I think, them to interpret, um, the inadvertent mistakes as intentional.

THOMPSON: Um-hm.

SIRITSKY: And, um, a lot of the Catholics were very frustrated. They were like, 00:44:00"We're trying so hard, and people are so angry." So, a large part of what I did was mediating and helping each side understand where the other side was coming from, which was a very natural role for me. Um, I did that with my parents sometimes--

THOMPSON: --yeah--

SIRITSKY: --and just that's who I've always been. Um, and what I did, first and foremost--and I give credit to Joe Gilene, who was the president of Jewish Hospital at the time--he encouraged me to write a weekly reflection, or to write a reflection, a regular reflection, about Judaism to the hospital. And I was afraid to do that, 'cause I didn't want to proselytize. If there's anything Jews stand for, it's no proselytizing. And um, that's why Jewish Hospital was created, because Jews were being proselytized. Um, and he encouraged me to, to just do it from an educational perspective. And I was so touched by how many 00:45:00people resonated with what I would write. I would write something about the Torah portion, the weekly reflection of the Bible, and I would try to translate it and distill it so that even if you don't believe in religion, whatever, as healthcare providers, what does this mean? And so many people started forwarding it to their pastors, and the Catholic Health Initiative's, our vice president of mission and theology and ethics, Dr. Carl Middleton, started forwarding it across Catholic Health Initiatives. And, um, people were so touched by it, and it really gave me the courage to speak, um, more. I also worked on expanding kosher food services and, um, we renovated our chapel, we made it wheelchair-accessible, um, we put up a mezuzah, um, we're getting a new Torah cover. Um, but at the same time, I also learned that there were a lot of Muslim 00:46:00staff who, uh, had nowhere to pray, and they--some of them were praying, like, outside, in way--places that were not, you know, appropriate for the--by their standards. And I wanted them to feel comfortable in the chapel, so, um, I removed some of the chairs to give them room to be able to pray, and we have, uh, prayer mats available for them so that they can pray. Um, it's really important--Judaism has always been about where other minorities who aren't comfortable elsewhere can feel comfortable. That has translated into larger work that we've done, whether it's with Kentucky Refugee Ministries or with victims of human trafficking, um, just working to advance Tikkun Olam in a lot of different ways. And to me, that's really what it means to be Jewish, more so than whether there's a mezuzah. What matters is, um, are we working for justice 00:47:00and compassion for all people and working to right the wrongs of society? 'Cause that to me is the essence of Judaism, and I feel like we do that. And so to me, that is very important. And I try to articulate it in a Jewish way and help the Jewish community recognize that. And slowly but surely I feel like a lot of the community has come around to learn to trust, and it's possible that they've come to trust Jewish Hospital because they already trusted me as somebody from the community, and I think that that probably helped a lot.

THOMPSON: I think that definitely helped a lot, kind of merging the two groups together and helping each other understand. But, uh, you mentioned how Jewish Hospital, um, mission and how it's important to provide excellent care for all. I learned from listening to you at the Breaking Down Barriers: The importance of Jewish Hospital in Louisville History Panel at the Filson Historical Society, you mentioned that Jewish Hospital was one of the first racially integrated 00:48:00hospitals in Louisville. Why is this important to Jewish Hospital's mission, and can you please elaborate on how Jewish Hospital continues to provide excellent care for all?

SIRITSKY: Well--(clears throat)--unfortunately, uh, America has a history of racism and slavery that is, um, not over. Um, racism persists, um, and the need for racial justice is, um--continues to be a very pressing and urgent need on all conscious, morally convicted people. We should all be working to right the injustices of, um, racial inequality. And there are significant racial disparities and socioeconomic disparities. Um, just in Louisville right now, there is a twelve-year difference in age expectancy depending on which zip code you live in. So Smoketown, historically African American community, has a 00:49:00twelve-year difference from St. Matthews. Just because of where you live. It is, um, awful.

THOMPSON: I agree.

SIRITSKY: And so we continue to need to work with the Urban League, with, um--I, I worked with several organizations in Smoketown. We've, um, supported, um, the Harambee clinic, which provides free medical care in Smoketown. Um, we've donated computers to them. All of those things are things that I have helped pushed for and advocate for in order to continue our mission. Um, the, the--Jewish Hospital, from what I understand, is--was--and you're the historian, so you'll be able to go into this much greater detail, but my understanding is 00:50:00Jewish doctors were very active working to ensure medical care in African American hospitals, but the racial segregation is problematic. And so, um, the first female president of Jewish Hospital also led the racial desegregation of Jewish Hospital, hiring Jewish doc--uh, African American doctors to take care of patients, regardless of their race, and having African American patients in the hospital, whether they're sharing rooms with people who are not. And that really shouldn't be so shocking, but unfortunately in America, with our history, it was pioneering, and I'm just really proud of it because it shows how Jews have taken their own experiences of oppression and transformed it into lessons that they 00:51:00can use to help other people not be in the situation they were in. And so whether it's refugees and immigrants--because Jews arrived fleeing persecution from other lands as refugees and immigrants in America, and they needed medical care, and so that's why Jewish Hospital was formed, and that's why we continue to work with, um, the Kentucky Refugee Ministries, and why Jewish Family Career Service continues to provide care and partner with Catholic Charities in caring for refugees and immigrants. Um, and we've worked on increasing our hiring of refugees and immigrants. That's been a very big part of what I've done with our recruiting, um, to try to increase the number of staff that are, um, refugees and immigrants. In our hospital, we actually--you may have read about it, but 00:52:00there's--there was a Lost Boy of Sudan--we, we try to employ a lot of them. Um, when they first came, we were very--the Jewish community was very active in advocating for them and integrating them. Um, so there was one of--(clears throat)--there was an employee who was a Lost Boy of Sudan, and his wife and two children were, um, still, um, in Sudan. They had met in a camp. Um, and we raised the money, in partnership with a synagogue in town, to, um, bring them to America and to help them get settled. Um, the synagogue was Congregation Adath Jeshurun. And that's a great example of in a lot of the work and projects that I've done, I've tried to partner with different synagogues, and, um, that's part of, I think, how we've helped rebuild that connection. So, for example, the 00:53:00temple, um, continues to work and help and support the Kristy Love Foundation, which is a survivor-led, um, haven for, um, victims of human trafficking that--I made that connection when I created Interfaith Passover Seder for victims of human trafficking. Um, really educating the Jewish community about human trafficking, because there wasn't that awareness. And now it's exciting for me to see how many people are very excited about it and, um, working to, uh, improve, um, the lives of these victims and to, um--in fact, I just got an email from Madeline Abramson, who was telling me about, um, someone from Louisville who is going to MIT to work on a special project to analyze air traffic flight patterns to see how that can help, um, address human trafficking.

THOMPSON: Wow.

SIRITSKY: Um, so it's just--I don't think that I am the start, but I feel like I might have helped, um, shift the tides towards, um, healing, and that's--that, that makes me feel like I have fulfilled my call.

THOMPSON: That's great. Um, as a rabbi, and with your position here at Jewish Hospital, it's clear that you've had a lot of experiences with the concept of Tikkun Olam. Can you please tell me about what the concept means to you and the traditions you trace it from in Judaism and how it applies to your own personal mission now?

SIRITSKY: So, um, I really have a very Kabbalistic approach in my own internal theology and understanding, and so when I think of Tikkun Olam, I think of how, when God created the world, um, there was this big bang explosion, where God's infinite energy could not be contained by the finite matter, and so there was 00:55:00this big explosion. And part of the experience of creation was, um, the brokenness of God, and that sometimes, um, beginnings can be hard, and that God needs us to partner with God in healing the world. And when I think about all of the tragedy that I've seen--you know, the Holocaust that my father went through, um, tragedies my mother went through--I, I'm aware of human limitation, human failings, the ways in which there's, um--whether it's mental illness or poverty or anger or, um, just--the ways in which our woundedness keeps us from being able to fulfill our created mission of making the world a better place. And so when I see suffering, brokenness, cruelty, violence, I believe that that is God 00:56:00calling us to make it right and to make God's presence visible. So when we say, "Where's God?" I say, "We need to be God. We need to make God's presence visible." And so that's always been my approach to everything, whether it's personal relationships or whether it's work or whether it's projects within our si--our, um--within my role, is it's about: Where are things broken, and what can I do to make it right? So I was talking about our smoking cessation issues in the hospital. Well, I saw a problem. (laughs) There were people leaning on the nonsmoking sign, smoking. Clearly we had some work to do. And meanwhile there were transplant patients saying, "I can't breathe, and it's hard to get into the hospital." So I partnered with the chief nursing officer at the time 00:57:00and security, and the three of us worked very hard with HR to change our policies, implement our policies, um, educate, um, create alternatives, and it took a little bit of time, because everyone said, "Oh, it's Kentucky. We have a culture of smoking; you can't do anything about it." We reached out with the hospital across the street. They had the same problem. Sometimes their employees went to our place and our employees went across the street to smoke. So we needed to do it together. So I feel like that's a big part of what I do, is I'm like I see the prob--I see the challenges, and I, I feel like I, I need to be the catalyst for healing. I don't need to do it myself. I try to encourage and bring together the right people--

THOMPSON: --um-hm--

SIRITSKY: --to solve, but it's, it's all about, um, just trying to make things better than we found them.

THOMPSON: That's great. You mentioned earlier that Jewish Hospital advocates for the transgender community. How does Jewish Hospital advocate for this community?

SIRITSKY: So, um, a lot of people have a lot of misconceptions about Catholicism, because the truth is that--(clears throat)--as Jewish Hospital became a part of KentuckyOne Health, came a commitment to honor Catholicism and the ethical and religious directives of Catholicism. And, um--and--while also honoring Jewish approaches to LGBT rights, which are unquestioned in Reform Judaism, in most forms of Judaism. But there is a lot of belief that Catholics are opposed to transgender people. And, um--and there--I'd say that that was my biggest shock in this role, was how much anti-Catholic sentiment there is. I had no idea, 'cause growing up in Quebec, everyone's Catholic.

THOMPSON: Um-hm.

SIRITSKY: They're the majority. Here, Catholics are a minority. I didn't realize that fully until I was in this role, advocating for Catholics and encountering the degree of anti-Catholicism that I encountered. Um, and one of them was this belief that they--that they wanted transgender people to be discriminated against, which is not true. (laughs) And so, in fact, there was an article I think in 2015 by the Catholic Health Association in Health Progress. It was the cover article, was about how all human beings deserve access to treatment and deserve respect. And it was a specific focus on how transgender people do not have equal access to care, have, um, disparity in their health outcomes, and what Catholicism should do to make that right. So a large part of what I did was advocating to explain why even--I shouldn't say "even"--how Ca--contrary to what 01:00:00people believed, it was in line with Catholic vision to ensure that all human beings have access to healthcare. And--so we had a situation actually at University Hospital where there was a patient who wa--identified as transgender, who, um, was, uh, hospitalized for, um, suicidality. And on this patient's wristband was the gender that was not the gender that that person identified with. And that really began the quest of how can we create a better process, and what does that look like, and how should we treat them? And we reached out to, um, the University of Louisville School of Medicine center for LGBT health. We, um, reached out to several, um, advocates, several people who identified as 01:01:00transgender, several scholars in the field. Um, we brought together members of our ethics committee, um, other mission leaders from within Catholic Health Initiatives, and our lawyers, because there was this whole issue about, um, would it be fraud to, uh, for example, bill insurance with a gender that was different than what their insurance card said. And so it was a very complex situation, and we had, um, physicians and our IT all working together to create a new process and then to create a new policy. Um, it took about eight months, um, but at the end of it, we had this great policy. Um, then I, I've done a lot of education within the KentuckyOne medical group on how to--language. And this is another example of exactly the same situation, where there's good intention 01:02:00but people just don't always know, and, um, sometimes people make mistakes or, um, they're afraid to make mistakes. And so it's just about assuming positive intent and, um, helping people do the right thing by giving them the tools in a nonjudgmental way, and, um, generally people are just really grateful 'cause they just need that guidance and need a safe place to ask for questions.

THOMPSON: I think that's wonderful that you're advocating for LGBTQs and their community. I think it's very important today in our time. Currently our country is facing an epidemic of opioid use, especially in this region of Kentuckiana, and it has even been declared as a national public health emergency. I read an article from the Jewish Community of Louisville explaining how you believe a person-centered approach is important to overcoming these addictions. Please elaborate on what a per--person-centered approach means to you, and what is Jewish Hospital doing to educate the community on the risk associated with drug use?

THOMPSON: So--(clears throat)--Jewish Hospital has become, I'd say, one of the epicenters for this crisis. Um, we are a heart hospital, cardiovascular, and whereas we used to take care of elderly people with heart disease, now we have twenty-year-olds who have, um, endocarditis and other diseases that have caused them to, um, need valve replacement surgery and a variety of other things. For many people, they are, um, young--twenty--and this is the first time that they're coming to terms with the fact that their addiction has become so problematic that they are now hovering between life and death. And so for many of them, this is their first chance to begin to think about, Do I want to heal, and what does that look like? Um, and for our staff, that's been an issue as 01:04:00well, because, um, it's a different population than they used to care for, and so learning about that has been, um, uh, a learning curve. Um, and truthfully, even the health department is struggling with what guidance to give. So, recognizing that this is a massive problem, I, um, I've reached out to obviously Our Lady of Peace, health department, Healing Place, Centerstone, um, pretty much anyone who can provide help. At one point early on, I, um, convened--(clears throat)--a meeting with, um, other social workers from other hospitals, um, all of the providers to try to begin to have conversations about this issue, primarily because when people--a lot of our, our patients would be needing IV antibiotic therapy for six weeks, and our doctors were afraid to 01:05:00discharge them home because they were afraid that they would use their port for drug use, and so they were being kept in the hospital, but we weren't providing them--we hadn't organized ourselves to provide them with, um, support for their underlying disease, because we're a heart hospital, we're not a psych hospital. And right now, there's, uh--there's still a huge division between mental health and physical health. A lot of patients with men--with physical issues are not able to go to Our Lady of Peace, and vice versa. So, um, I'm working with the health department right now as part of our community health needs assessment to, um, ensure that that is, um, the first issue--How do we integrate those two?--um, that our city can work on for the next three years. Um, I've reached out to, um, Healing Place. We have a--we have a, um--sorry, I was just 01:06:00remembering an email I needed to send them. (both laugh) Uh, I reached out to Healing Place, and we have healing angels who now come to meet with patients who have--are sort of like peer support specialists who've gone through those challenges and come out the other side and, um, can encourage them and help show that there's faith. Research shows that people are twice as likely to pursue, um, rehab if they meet someone like them and know that's possible, because the biggest issue is developing hope. Um, I've started having social work students meeting with patients, um, to try to encourage using, um, evidence-based techniques like motivational interviewing to encourage them to seek treatment. Um, we are--we have a--we're working--I've been working with our physicians to 01:07:00develop, help develop guidelines on how--and protocols on how to treat patients with mental illness. We have doctors that are now going to be getting trained. So, um, working on developing all of those resources for vic--for individuals dealing with addiction has been a huge part of what I've been doing. I've also started training, um, staff on trauma-informed care and education and, um, just different approaches to dealing with substance abuse. I'd say the biggest issue has just been building that awareness once again. It's, it's about helping people understand that addiction is not a choice, um, and working with other experts to try to consolidate and create streamlined processes to help this--deal with this new issue.

THOMPSON: You mentioned earlier that human trafficking is important to your role 01:08:00here at Jewish Hospital, and as we both know, human trafficking is a growing problem in both the US and Kentucky itself. What is Jewish Hospital doing to address this growing social issue?

SIRITSKY: So, um, we've done a lot of training with our staff to help recognize, um, victims of human trafficking. We, um--and as a result, we've been able to recognize and help, um, intervene to save and rescue people. Um, we have done, uh--we've provided support--not just Jewish Hospital, but KentuckyOne Health, um, St. Mary's, Our Lady of Peace, University of Louisville Hospital all participated in this. Um, we--I--all, primarily led by me, because I represent, um, for the state and city, um, our efforts on human trafficking, um, as part of the citywide task force and the statewide task force. We've met with the state attorney general, um, and other lawmakers to advocate for policies on, um, this 01:09:00issue. We've met with vic--victims. We did--created drop-in services, drop-in center, um, providing health screenings, um, and connecting them to treatment, as well as connecting them to Healing Place, um, and connecting them to other resources in the community, especially Kristy Love Foundation, which we've done a lot of advocating for. Helped--we donated vans to them to help them rescue more people, um, partnered with them on grants and a variety of other, um, initiatives. Um, but probably, again, I think awareness-raising is a huge part of it.

THOMPSON: I think that's very important. Jewish Hospital has clearly raised awareness for several social issues. How do you think Jewish Hospital's made an impact on the Louisville community, in Kentucky, in the global medical community?

SIRITSKY: Well, obviously in terms of our medical expertise, um, and all of the 01:10:00medical firsts that we have done, I think we've tremendously made an impact, but I think in terms of the social advocacy as well, that's been, um, something important. I think for me, the biggest issue--and--is, especially as a child of a Holocaust survivor who is aware of how anti-Semitism continues to be a big issue in the world today, um, my hope is that non-Jews, whether they work at Jewish Hospital or they receive care at Jewish Hospital, many of them may never have met a Jew in their life and may only know about Jews from stereotypes and prejudices that were repeated to them, that hopefully they experience, um, Jewish Hospital in a positive way, that they, um, they feel like Judaism is, um, a positive influence in the world, and, um, in many ways I hope and pray that I 01:11:00am helping Jewish Hospital be, um, a force that will prevent anti-Semitism. Um, and do more Tikkun Olam, just help--work with other faith communities in, um, addressing the problems that exist in our world.

THOMPSON: That's great. Is there anything else you would like to share that I have not asked you about yet?

SIRITSKY: I can't think of anything, but I'd be happy to respond via email if there are more questions that come up or if there's questions that emerge.

THOMPSON: Thank you so much for spending time with me today and allowing me to conduct this interview. I have learned so much, and I am grateful for this opportunity to learn more about Louisville's Jewish Hospital. Thank you.

SIRITSKY: Thank you.

[End of interview.]