Our Team, News, and Publications
Chaplain Bruce D. Feldstein, MD, BCC
Founder and Director
[email protected]
Chaplain Bruce Feldstein, MD, BCC is the founder and director of JFCS Jewish Chaplaincy Services, serving Stanford Medicine, and Adjunct Clinical Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School. After specializing in emergency medicine for 19 years, an injury led him to a deeper sense of his life’s work, as a chaplain. Bruce was a visiting scholar at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics and completed his chaplaincy training in 2000 in Stanford’s Clinical Pastoral Education program. He developed and teaches an award-winning curriculum on spirituality and well-being for medical students and faculty at Stanford School of Medicine, and heads the Stanford Lifestyle Medicine pillar on Gratitude and Reflection. Chaplain Dr. Feldstein received the John Templeton Spirituality and Medicine Curricular Award and was the first recipient of the Isaac Stein Award for Compassionate Care presented by the Stanford Health Care Board of Directors. He is recognized as a Board Certified Chaplain by Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains, the professional association for Jewish chaplains worldwide, where he was a past president. He has taught and published widely. Bruce is member of Congregations Kol Emeth in Palo Alto, Beth Jacob in Redwood City and Beth Am in Los Altos.
Chaplain David Smilovitz
Chaplain
[email protected]
Chaplain David Smilovitz joined Jewish Chaplaincy Services in 2018 after serving for 10 years as a hospice chaplain with Pathways Home Health and Hospice. David received his professional chaplaincy training through Stanford’s Clinical Pastoral Education Program. David is an active member of Congregation Beth Jacob in Redwood City, CA.
Dana Doctorow
Program Coordinator
[email protected]
Dana Doctorow joined Jewish Chaplaincy Services in 2019. Her background is in life sciences operations and management consulting, and she earned an MBA in Health Care Management from The Wharton School of Business. She is a member of Congregation Beth Am, where she serves on the Beth Am Women board, and is a past participant and friend of JFCS’ Parents Place.
In the Media and Publications
In the Media:
Stanford Daily Podcast Office Hours Air: 4. Death is not a failure of life—Podcast with Chaplain Bruce Feldstein MD, BCC, January 18, 2024.
Stanford Medicine Scope: This Is My Why: Champions of Stanford Medicine Hospitals—Featuring Chaplain Bruce Feldstein MD, BCC, May 8, 2023.
Meaningful Medicine: On Resilience in Medicine–Podcast with Chaplain Bruce Feldstein MD, BCC, May 4, 2022.
Meaningful Medicine: On Spirituality in Medicine–Podcast with Chaplain Bruce Feldstein MD, BCC, March 23, 2022.
The Doctor’s Art on Meaning in Medicine: Episode 3, The Spirituality of Care–Podcast with Chaplain Bruce Feldstein MD, March 8, 2022.
Photos: A flying drone menorah and other Bay Area Hanukkah events. J. The Jewish News of Northern California, November 29, 2021.
Jewish Hospital Chaplains are on the Pandemic’s Spiritual Front Line. J. The Jewish News of Northern California, February 16, 2021
House of Healing a documentary film about how a synagogue can create a mental health-friendly congregation, 2021, includes Chaplain Bruce Feldstein MD, BCC.
Times of Israel blog: Accompanying Us When There Is No Going Back by Shelley S, Hebert, June 23, 2020 featuring Chaplain Bruce Feldstein MD, BCC during the pandemic, his workshop series, and Spiritual Fitness Toolkit for Designing Our Well-Being.
Unorthodox, The Conversion Episode 2020—Podcast by Ahttps://blogs.timesofisrael.com/accompanying-us-when-there-is-no-going-back/lix Wall in Tablet Magazine, May 27, 2020. Features Chaplain Feldstein in the story of a Vietnamese patient on the oncology ward (see 57:35-1:21:30).
Medicine as Meditation: What a doctor learned from a chaplain—ScientificAmerican.com article by Stanford Medical student Vivian Ho, February 21, 2020.
Your Health a Sacred Matter—A 2017 documentary featuring Chaplain Bruce Feldstein MD and other leaders.
Talking with … A doctor who heals people’s spirits—jweekly.com, May 5, 2016, an interview with Chaplain Bruce Feldstein, MD.
Doctors on Life Support—Time Magazine, September 7, 2015. Features Chaplain Bruce Feldstein, MD’s work with medical students.
Healing through Faith—BeWell@Stanford, November 30, 2011.
Training for Caring Communities: A Roundtable—Sh’ma, A Journal of Jewish Responsibility, June 2011.
Bridging with the Sacred: Reflections of an MD Chaplain—by Chaplain Bruce Feldstein MD. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, July 2011.
The Jewish Chaplaincy at Stanford Provides Care and Comfort When Patients Need it Most—Read what patients have to say in this Stanford Medicine publication, May 2010.
Faith, healer / Stanford Hospital doctor turns in stethoscope for power of prayer—San Francisco Chronicle, April 8, 2005.
Attending to the Spirit—Stanford Medicine, volume 2, fall 2001.
Select Publications:
Spiritual Fitness Toolkit for Designing Our Well-Being–A comprehensive resource, written by Chaplain Bruce Feldstein, MD, BCC, containing exercises, reading, and guidance for spiritual fitness.
Bridging with the Sacred: Reflections of an MD Chaplain—by Chaplain Bruce Feldstein MD. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, July 2011, pages: 155-161.
“Judaism, Chapter 7” by Chaplain Bruce Feldstein MD, Chaplain Dvorah Rose, Carol Winograd MD. Doorway Thoughts: Cross Cultural Health Care for Older Adults, Volume 3, American Geriatrics Society, 2008, pp.99-117.
Toward Meaning—Chaplain Bruce Feldstein MD, JAMA, September 19, 2001, 1291-2.
To learn more about Jewish Chaplaincy Services events, and volunteer opportunities, contact Dana Doctorow, Program Coordinator, at [email protected] or 650-723-3808.
