Rabbi Suzanne Offit was ordained at the Hebrew College Rabbinical School, which she entered enthusiastically as one of its founding students in 2003. Through NAJC, Rabbi Offit is a Board Certified Chaplain. She served as a community rabbi and Palliative Care chaplain in post-acute services at Hebrew SeniorLife in Boston for 15 years. Her focus was geriatrics and end-of-life work with patients and families. In this urban setting, Rabbi Offit worked intentionally to understand through her many experiences and research how best to serve vulnerable populations in our society and how substance use disorder, moral injury, chronic illness and racism affect families especially in the health care system.

During the many layers upon layers of loss and trauma during the COVID pandemic, Rabbi Offit accepted an invitation to step into suicide response as her professional focus. Both personal and professional experiences with suicide loss energized her interest and research into “Transforming the Jewish Communal Response to Suicide.” Rabbi Offit works closely with social worker, Marjie Sokol, JF&CS of Greater Boston, to create communal education programs for the Greater Boston area, and with Zoom expanding their work nationally. They have also created a robust Suicide Loss Survivor bereavement group that welcomes folks on Zoom from multiple states and is growing.

Rabbi Offit offers support and learning to rabbis, rabbinical students, chaplains and community leaders, and grief support to suicide loss survivor families and communities. 

Rabbi Offit is on the boards of American Jewish World Service (AJWS), Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains (NAJC), Jewish Women’s Archive (JWA), and works closely with Hebrew College, Social Innovation Forum, Louis D Brown Peace Institute, Father’s Uplift and Temple Beth Zion, Brookline, MA.

Rabbi Offit maintains her healthy soul through biking, hiking, swimming, gardening, cooking and a deep love of poetry. In addition to caring for her communities, she cares for 12 beehives, 6 chickens, 3 adult sons and one husband.