Rabbi Zev Schostak, Founder and Director

Rabbi Zev Schostak has served for nearly 30 years as director of pastoral care at the Gurwin Jewish Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Commack, Long Island. Before becoming a chaplain, Rabbi Schostak had a distinguished career as a teacher and principal at yeshiva elementary and high schools in New York and Michigan.

Ordained in Jerusalem by Rabbi Yechezkel Sarna, Rosh Yeshiva of Hevron and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, he also holds an MA from the University of Detroit and has permanent certification as a New York State school administrator and supervisor.
Rabbi Schostak has written extensively on end-of-life bioethics and the issues of aging in halachah (Jewish law). He served as a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Medicine in Contemporary Society at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and was honored for his leadership and contributions to professional chaplaincy and Jewish medical ethics as the Rabbinical Council of America’s Healthcare Chaplain of the Year in 2012.

His tribute to teachers, a poem entitled “In the World of Tomorrow” received national acclaim after its publication in Phi Delta Kappan, a leading educational journal, and American Educator, the quarterly of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).