About Us – The Aleph Institute
The Organization. Our core Values. Our Mission.
Mission Statement
The Aleph Institute is a 501c3 certified non-profit Jewish organization dedicated to assisting and caring for the wellbeing of members of specific populations that are isolated from the regular community: U.S. military personnel , prisoners, and people institutionalized or at risk of incarceration due to mental illness or addictions .
Aleph addresses their religious, educational, and spiritual needs, advocates for their civil and religious rights, and provides support to their families at home left to fend for themselves.
The Aleph Institute is committed to criminal justice reform and recidivism reduction through preventive-education and faith-based rehabilitation programs, re-entry assistance, alternative sentencing guidance and counsel, and policy research and recommendations.
History
The Aleph Institute is a national non-profit organization, founded in 1981 by Rabbi Sholom Ber Lipskar O”BM at the express direction of the Chabad-Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson.
Since its founding more than 40 years ago with the early and staunch endorsement of Judge Jack Weinstein, Senior Judge (EDNY), Aleph has been lauded for its work by an impressive array of jurists, judges, attorney generals, and military officers, and is a recognized ecclesiastical endorser for the U.S. Department of Defense.
The Aleph Institute’s team has grown from just one Rabbi to more than 75 dedicated staff members and over 500 volunteers, who literally save lives, helping countless individuals during some of the darkest moments of their lives, and impacting thousands of families across the globe through their work. We are an equal opportunity employer.
Our souls cannot be broken that they should need repair, nor deficient that they should need anything added. Our souls need only to be uncovered and allowed to shine …
As with every health problem, physical, mental or spiritual, the cure lies not in treating the symptoms, but in attacking the cause.
The Aleph Institute is doing extraordinary fine work. Its assistance to defendants and their families provide standards of compassion and aid worthy of emulation….Rabbi Sholom Lipskar, the guiding force of the Aleph Institute, and his associates understand and force us to face the fact that each person deserves to be treated with respect as an individual personality and not as a faceless number. . . .
“…Aleph helps in three ways. First, it explains to judges and the judicial system when and how alternatives to prison which protect the public are possible. Second, it helps those in prison develop their spiritual lives and maintain contact with their families and the world beyond their bars and barbed wire. Third, it assists those outside, particularly the children of prisoners, to retain their ties with prisoners. As a result of its good work, Aleph is widely known and respected by penal and judicial authorities.”
Departments
Aleph is made up of a number of departments that service the following constituencies:
- Military personnel and their families
- Prisoners and their families
- Former inmates
Highlights of Aleph’s work
- Military chaplaincy training and support
- Religious and medical rights advocacy and facilitation
- Inmate visitation, emotional support, spiritual guidance, and encouragement
- Spiritual guidance, provisions, and aid to US servicemen and their families
- Social services and crisis response for families with loved ones in prison
- Faith-based rehabilitation and recidivism reduction
- Judicial counsel on appropriate alternative sentencing solutions
- Re-entry services and guidance such as housing, jobs, life-skills programs, and post-release accountability
- Family coaching for legal enforcement of crime- preventive intervention and treatment
- Policy recommendations for religious rights and criminal justice reform
- Development of extensive ties within federal and state penitentiaries and Bureau of Prisons
- Intervention response to certain emergency international situations
About Aleph Institute
The Aleph Institute addresses the needs of thousands of individuals in institutional environments such as prisons, mental health facilities, and rehabilitation centers. Aleph also provides spiritual support for thousands of military personnel in the United States Armed Forces across the globe.
National Headquarters
Joseph & Sterna Gutnick National Headquarters Prison and Military Services 9540 Collins Avenue Surfside, Florida 33154-7127
Phone Number: 305-864-5553 Fax Number 305-864-5675
West Coast
Los Angeles Office Advocacy & Alternative Sentencing 7304 Beverly Blvd #153 Los Angeles, CA 90036
Phone Number: 310-598-2142 Fax Number: 323-297-4380
East Coast
