Rabbi Dr. H. Rafael Goldstein (Post-Denominational)

Conversion Requirements
Brit Milah/Hatafat: Optional, will discuss with potential converts (supervision not required)
Mikvah:  Yes (West Side Mikvah, Manhattan, NY)
Bet Din: Yes (bet din may include rabbis, cantors, rabbinical students, Jewish chaplains)
Conversion Location: Manhattan, NYC (at the mikvah or in my office at Mount Sinai Medical Center)
Students Accepted: Mitzvah

Rabbi Dr. H. Rafael Goldstein is the Chief Chaplain of the Mount Sinai Health System in New York, and a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He was the first openly gay person to be ordained by the Academy for Jewish Religion in New York in 1994. Rafael has been involved in adult Jewish education for over 20 years, and has an extensive background in helping to bring people to recognize and acknowledge their “inner Jewishness” when they were not born into a Jewish family.

Rafael is a member of a Renewal congregation in New York, and part-time rabbi of an unaffiliated intimate congregation far upstate New York. “I believe each of us finds what is most personally meaningful as we do the journey of living as Jews. We can learn from each of the denominations, but they do not have to define who we are, what we think, or what we do.”

Rafael received a Doctorate in Ministry (Counseling) from Hebrew Union College/Jewish Institute of Religion in 2014 and is a Life Coach, specializing in working with people living with serious illness, their caregivers and loved ones, and LGBTQ people and their loved ones. He is the author of 4 books and numerous articles. His website has links for the books and articles as well as other information about him.