Keep Climbing

When Rabbi Naftali Rabinowitz became the Jewish chaplain at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, it was both the closing of a circle and the opening of new doors. Born with spina bifida, as a child he traveled from Eretz Yisrael with his parents to receive life-altering treatment at the very medical center where he’s now employed. And it’s also a testament to the possibilities open to those who thought life basically ended with this particular birth defect

By Margie Pensak
Photos Eli Greengart

Rabbi Naftali Rabinowitz is an anomaly in the halls of Johns Hopkins medical center. Dressed in his black rekel, peyos neatly curled behind his ears, the Skolya chassid stands out in stark contrast to the tens of thousands of people who frequent the world-class hospital daily. Yet this board-certified Jewish chaplain services patients of every denomination in the very hospital in which he was treated as a child over 24 years ago.

Eight-year-old Naftali, who was born with spina bifida, traveled with his family from Jerusalem to Baltimore for a surgical procedure with Johns Hopkins’ pediatric urologist Dr. John Gearhart. Although the original plan was to stay for only six weeks, the Rabinowitz family ended up moving to the warm, welcoming Baltimore community who had embraced them as they navigated their complex medical journey on foreign soil.

How fitting that I caught up with Rabbi Rabinowitz at the entrance to the Johns Hopkins Children Center, where he began his Johns Hopkins experience, so different from where he is now.

As the medical center’s Jewish chaplain, Rabbi Rabinowitz is on call 24/7 for the hospital’s Jewish population, in addition to his regular Monday-Thursday in-house hours. The hospital has chaplaincy coverage around the clock, divided between each of the denominational chaplains, and he has one of those shifts as well. He’s often the liaison between staff, families, and rabbanim — both local and international — and has the private cell phone numbers and the Minchah/Maariv schedule of the city’s rabbanim, whom he might need to catch in shul when their phones are off. He also facilitates lines of communication between the doctors and rabbanim, who often only hear the family’s perspective without balanced medical information.