Rabbi Dr. Noam Weinberg spent 25 years as a teacher and school administrator working in Jewish day schools in Northern New Jersey and New York. During that time, he spent many hours mentoring children and parents through challenges they were facing in their personal lives. He returned to school to pursue a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy so that he could be better equipped to coach his students and their parents and help them navigate life’s difficulties. Today, he is living in Israel with his family and is drawing on his experiences in both education and therapy to help individuals build healthy and meaningful relationships.
Weinberg’s newly opened practice is based on a model of relationship coaching. He works in Hebrew and English with couples, parents, young adults, high conflict families, and anybody seeking support in a relationship with healthy communications, creating intimacy, setting boundaries and working through any other challenges. He aims to provide his clients with a safe and nonjudgmental space where they can receive support that is action-oriented and tailored to each individual he sees.
Weinberg explained that when he worked in education, he noticed that teachers and rabbis were playing the role of therapists, though they had no formal training. He observed how inundated the Jewish community was with needs for help, but the adults they looked towards did not have the capacity to help everybody or the knowledge of how to approach each situation. This is why today he is so focused on providing the guidance to his clients that they might not be able to find from their teachers, co-workers, friends or family.
There are so many essential building blocks to healthy communications that people need to learn, Weinberg said. For example, when he works with couples, he might teach each partner to learn how to say “sorry” as an important element of conflict resolution. When working with parents he might teach them how to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy rebellion. And when working with high conflict families he might focus on building trust.
“Learning how to validate, learning how to love, learning how to be intimate—all these things are learned,” Weinberg said. “I am helping people create those beautiful relationships.”
While in college at Yeshiva University, Weinberg began studying advertising and marketing and hoped to pursue a career in comedy. But a religious awakening changed his path, and led him to grow closer to Judaism and to follow a career in Jewish education. He also realized how much he loves people and wanted to dedicate himself to enhancing their lives.
Today he feels especially privileged to be doing so in Israel. His family is among the pioneers of Givot Eden, a new community in the Elah Valley in the center of Israel. From there he sees clients both in Israel in person and overseas via Zoom. “I am just a person who finds real meaning in seeing people happy, seeing people healthy,” he said.
Alisa Bodner is a Fair Lawn native who immigrated to Israel over a decade ago. She is a nonprofit management professional who enjoys writing in her free time.
