Friday, July 26th marks the 29th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This anniversary should be celebrated by all Jews, as it is so consistent with our values. Indeed, perhaps the first recorded instance of a workplace accommodation is found in the Torah when God commissions Moshe to lead the people out of Egypt. In response [click to continue...]
This week’s Shabbat Smile was written by Allison Kleinman, Founding Director of The Jack and Shirley Silver Center for Special Needs + Adaptations at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan. As another program year comes to an end at The Jack and Shirley Silver Center for Special Needs (CSN) at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, we [click to continue...]
This week’s Shabbat Smile was written by disability advocate and attorney Zvia Admon, focusing on inclusion in Israeli synagogues. How can we make Israeli congregations more accessible, inclusive and welcoming for people with disabilities and their families? How can we make sure that people with disabilities are able to fully participate in all activities, together with their [click to continue...]
This week’s Shabbat Smile, written by the talented Jon Polin, will show you how Israel is expanding its life-enhancing technologies and success as a global leader in accessibility. On the heels of impressive strides in public policy and rehabilitative care, technology is now poised to be the third rung to catapult Israel to be the [click to continue...]
This week’s Shabbat Smile was written by Howard Blas about a recent Access Israel conference. Yuval Wenger knows a thing or two about accessibility and inclusion in Israel—and he has been sharing it with Israel and the international community for over two decades. As Founder and President of Access Israel, the NGO that promotes accessibility [click to continue...]
In a few days, I’ll be at a graduation—not an unusual event for this time of year, but this graduation will be unique. It’ll be the culmination of a year of intense learning and internship experiences for six young adults from across the state of Maryland, all of whom have developmental and/or other disabilities. They’ll [click to continue...]
For my house shall be a house of prayer for all peoples. Isaiah 56:7 The great disability rights advocate, Rabbi Lynne Landsberg, z’l’ said, “We don’t welcome people with disabilities because they have disabilities. We welcome them because they are people.” Becoming a house of prayer for all peoples involves much more than an open [click to continue...]
Watch the webinar on YouTube with live embedded captions Read the webinar transcript Download the slide deck as a PDF or as an accessible PowerPoint (Note: formatting for PowerPoint presentations vary when opened, and may compromise their aesthetic integrity) About Our Speakers and Presenters: Keynote Speaker, Carol Robles-Román, is Chief Legal Counsel and Dean of Faculty at Hunter College. Ms. Robles-Román is [click to continue...]
This week’s Shabbat Smile is by Rachel Kunstadt, a mental health advocate and self-advocate in NYC. Her presentation at our Empowerment Training for Jewish Women with Disabilities – entitled “Choosing Life!” – included a musical performance of a song she co-wrote, addressing her agoraphobia. This past January, I became a Bat Mitzvah for the second time. Or [click to continue...]
A new Israeli study finds that negative views on aging are often passed down in families of Holocaust survivors with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The findings, published in the Journals of Gerontology: Series B, show that Holocaust survivors with PTSD view themselves as aging less successfully compared to survivors without PTSD as well as to older [click to continue...]
