(Courtesy of HRH) Hudson Regional Hospital is pleased to welcome Rabbi Colonel (ret.) Ira Kronenberg, LCSW, as its new chaplain. Rabbi Kronenberg is a retired colonel chaplain with 34 years’ experience in the US Army. His combined active and reserve service included tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. His professional path has prepared him for his current passion—advising discharged military personnel as well as civilians on religious issues, community affairs and social work. He has strong skills in the areas of training social workers; suicide prevention training; reintegration training; Jewish religious services; and training hospital personnel in abuse, patient rights, dementia and cultural diversity. He also provides pastoral and spiritual counseling for people of all faiths and denominations.
As a well-known member of the frum community, Rabbi Kronenberg’s experience includes a role as director of religious services at Daughters of Miriam/Gallen Institute in Clifton, New Jersey. There, he served as the rabbi of the on-premises synagogue and a licensed clinical social worker, as well as ethics committee coordinator and the student social worker supervisor. In the US Army, he held the position of military chaplain while stationed in the United States, Iraq and Afghanistan. He has spent his career in dedication to serving any spiritual need regardless of affiliation for the troops and other military personnel; he also advised the command executives on issues of ethics, morale and religion.
His responsibilities have been vast and varied, equipping him with the knowledge required to serve as chaplain at Hudson Regional. He has planned, coordinated and managed the mobilization and demobilization chaplain activities for over 7,800 soldiers from 2003 to 2008. He conducted religious services on five deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He has been responsible for the training of more than 50 social workers and represented the Army Chaplain Corp in CNN and Fox News interviews. He has conducted military funerals and handled over 30 casualty notifications. He also designed the Fort Dix reintegration training for reserve soldiers returning from combat.
Rabbi Kronenberg has been the recipient of many awards over the years, including the Army Achievement Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Legion of Merit Medal, the Iraq Campaign Ribbon, the Afghanistan Campaign Ribbon, the Global War on Terrorism Medal and the National Defense Medal. He was also recognized as Jewish Military Chaplain of the Year in 2005. He has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) for Healthcare Chaplaincy.
Pursuing a career in chaplaincy, Rabbi Kronenberg earned a BA in Mathematics from Yeshiva College and an MS from Bernard Revel Graduate School. He has also completed many continuing education courses and continues to further his education to provide the best possible services to all he encounters. As hospital chaplain, he is qualified to advise and serve people of all religions.
“I have known and worked with Rabbi Kronenberg the past 10 years, and we are excited to have him as our chaplain, as we progress towards our goal of offering quality care to the frum community,” said George Matyjewicz, director of community outreach. “We are bringing on physicians and staff familiar with the needs of the frum community and would be perfectly content to be a frum-only specialized hospital, to serve the large communities in Northern New Jersey and New York. Yan Moshe, owner and COB of Hudson Regional Hospital has clearly defined and started to execute his plans of offering quality care with technology advances—like our two new robots, da Vinci XI Robotic Surgical System and the Mazor Renaissance system.
“Rabbi Kronenberg is also a good resource for working with the Veterans Administration to help veterans with their medical issues, and the delays in getting help. He and I worked together trying to get the V.A. to expedite their Network Civilian Provider for our veterans and active military. Since HRH is a Network Civilian Provider we will pursue that avenue once again.
“Hudson Regional Hospital is delighted to have Rabbi Kronenberg on staff and looks forward to working with him and our patients in the coming years, as we progress to becoming the best hospital in New Jersey—heck, in the U.S.!”
