Eliot J. Baskin

2011

Rabbi Eliot J. Baskin, D.Min. serves as Denver’s Jewish Community Chaplain and the Rabbinic Director of Rafael: Spiritual Healing Center as part of Jewish Family Service of Colorado where he visits Jews in hospitals, nursing homes, hospices,  correctional facilities & mental health institutions.  He also serves part time as the spiritual leader for Congregation Har Shalom in Durango, CO.  He served as  past President of the Rocky Mountain Rabbinic Council.   He enjoys teaching theology, ethics and history for the Melton Adult Mini School and Philosophy and Comparative Religion for Argosy University, volunteering for the Denver Police Chaplains’ Unit, leading Jewish holiday services for Cruise Lines, acting as a maven for Storahtelling and lecturing frequently throughout the country on topics of contemporary Jewish spirituality for ReJewvenate.net.

He graduated from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1985.  He wrote his thesis on “The Development of Progressive Judaism in Australia”  after serving liberal congregations in New Zealand and Australia as a student rabbi.  Following ordination he served as the Jewish chaplain at the Mayo Clinic where he completed a residency in Clinical Pastoral education.  He previously served congregations in Rochester, Minnesota, Fort Collins, Colorado, Glastonbury, Connecticut and Evergreen, Colorado.

As he sees relationship to be at the heart of his rabbinate, he became the first rabbi to earn the Doctor of Ministry degree in Pastoral Care and Counseling in 1993 at  the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York where he did his demonstration project in the use of Sacred Stories for Patients with AIDS.

Originally from Toronto, Rabbi Baskin makes his home in the land of elk and honey with his wife, Hilary, an orthodontist, where they practice “brachas (blessings) and braces.”  They are blessed with two sons, Jonah (b.1995) and Gabriel (b.1997) who share their passion for skiing, hiking, biking, reading, theatre and travel.