Address: c/o Central Reform Congregation, 5020 Waterman Blvd., St. Louis, Mo. 63108 | Phone: 314-222-9864 | email: [email protected]

Rabbi James Stone Goodman, Director

Convened by Rabbi James Stone Goodman, Jewish Attention to Mental Illness (JAMI StL) began with a program called Falling Through the Cracks, a series of community forums at Congregation Neve Shalom to secure mental health—and problems occasioned by mental illness—in the center of the community’s agenda. It continues with a series called Shanda—There Is None, Jewish resources for mental health.

JAMI StL began with a commitment to teaching and embodying the Jewish commitment to community and to the place of the stranger, overcoming the shanda (shame) aspect of mental illness by bringing the stranger into the community with compassion.

We teach that there is no one outside the camp — that we are all in the Jewish community tent. It is a big tent and we owe it to those who may not advocate well for themselves to advocate for them. 

Our goal is to teach by embodying the compassionate values that Judaism extends to all individuals in the big tent approach to Jewish community, overcoming the stigma that attaches to mental illness.