Rabbi Joseph Kolakowski
Chaplaincy Program Director, State Correctional Institute at Waymart (PA)
Rabbi Kolakowski is a Hasidic Rabbi, affectionately known in his community as the Koblentzer Rebbe. He received his first ordination as a rabbi from Lander College for Men in Queens, NY, and has served as a chaplain in many settings including nursing homes, prisons, and hospital settings, as well as a pulpit rabbi in Virginia and New York State. He and his wife Melissa serve as Jewish chaplains at the Rockland Psychiatric Center in Orangeburg, NY. His full-time position is as Chaplaincy Program Director at SCI Waymart, where he holds the distinction of being the first Jewish chaplain to serve as a full-time chaplain in a state prison in the history of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, as well as the first Rabbi to hold the position of a supervisory chaplain in a Pennsylvania State prison.
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