Gretchen's Story About the JFS Chaplaincy Program

Recently, Rabbi Eliot Baskin, Jewish community chaplain, spoke at Allied Jewish Federation's staff giving event about his work. Gretchen Koplin, senior manager of planning and allocations at Allied Jewish Federation, openly shared her struggle with cancer and spoke about the help she received from Rabbi Baskin during this difficult time in her life.

Having helped to produce the staff giving event last year (and having previously agreed to help produce this year’s as well), I am saddened that I cannot be there with you all as you make your individual commitments to the Federation’s 2010 Annual Campaign. I find that this year, I have a very personal story to share that speaks to the absolute importance of the work that we do, every day, to make the Jewish world and our local Jewish community a stronger one. I know that Rabbi Eliot Baskin, our Jewish Community Chaplain, has agreed to speak as well, and while I don’t know the precise nature of his remarks, I believe that what I have to say will tie in quite nicely.

As you are all aware, I have been absent from work these past few months due to my ongoing battle with Leukemia (a battle that I am determined to win!). While my situation today is quite hopeful, and I have every reason to believe that I will be back in the swing of things before I know it, my situation in August and September of 2009 was quite different. Please take a moment now, and try to put yourself in my position:

• I have been told that I have Acute Myeloid Leukemia, one of the most difficult of cancers to beat, a cancer of the blood.


• I have been told that my initial prognosis is no better than a 25% chance that I will live more than two years post-treatment.


• I am admitted, almost immediately, to the Adult Oncology ward of the hospital to start on an aggressive round of chemotherapy designed to hopefully put me in remission. I start this round of treatment with the knowledge that together with the chemotherapy doses I received to treat my breast cancer two years ago, this regimen may cause incredible toxicity to my body and irreversible damage to my heart.


• I am in the hospital for five weeks, not only for my 40th birthday, but also for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

It is this last that truly gives me pause. This is the time in the Jewish calendar, when G-d makes big decisions: who shall live, and who shall die. And here I am, facing arguably one of the most serious threats to one’s existence possible. In my heart, I am terrified that the timing of this means that G-d has perhaps already reached a decision about me; perhaps this is all of the time I have been granted in this life.

My hospital door opens, and Rabbi Baskin walks in for a visit. Knowing him through my work at the Federation, and knowing what a wonderful person he is, I am of course pleased to see him. We chat about recent happenings in the Jewish community, how great the hospital staff is, as well as about what I am currently going through, when he says to me; “The timing of this is really interesting, you know.”

My heart stops, inwardly I cringe, and I brace myself. I think: "Here it comes…any second now, the Rabbi will tell me that this is the end of the line for me.” Instead, Rabbi Baskin speaks of this time of year being a time for rebirth and renewal, and that the process I have embarked upon now (chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant) is, by definition, a real rebirth for me. I will be receiving a whole new immune system; new life with which to fight this terrible disease. He clasps my hand and the hands of my parents, and recites a wonderfully comforting Mi Sheberakh (prayer for healing), and then takes his leave, promising to stop by in a week to see how I am doing. I am filled with a profound sense of relief, and feel immeasurably strengthened by his words and the new point of view that they present me with.

This is my story, but it is only one story. This is what Rabbi Baskin does for the local Jewish community, you see: he travels around to local nursing homes, hospitals and prisons, offering pastoral care to the Jews that find themselves there, most of whom have no other access to a Rabbi. I suspect that Rabbi Baskin’s calendar is literally stuffed to the brim with appointments and visitations, and I know that countless Jews every year are the direct beneficiaries of the crucial pastoral work that he does, just as I was.

Because the service that Rabbi Baskin provides to the community just affects Jews and not the general population, the Jewish Community Chaplaincy program (housed at Jewish Family Service of Colorado (JFS), is completely reliant upon funds raised from the Jewish community; JFS cannot use any government grants or United Way funding to pay for this program. For the past several years, JFS has used a portion of our Federation’s annual allocation to help fund this incredibly important service to the local community, and with the funds we raise in the 2010 Annual Campaign, we will be able to continue to support this service, and other services and programs that are just as important to our Jewish community.

The chaplaincy program, including volunteer para-chaplains, provides spiritual support to hundreds of people each year in our community. Thank you to Gretchen for courageously sharing your story and reminding us of the chaplaincy's program important work.