As you know, a major focus of our Jewish program is providing varied venues for Jews with disabilities to enrich the Jewish community with their talent. A critical facet of the Jewish experience is artistic expression through: music, visual arts, dance, photography, creative writing and poetry. As a people, we have celebrated many great poets: Emma Lazarus (“Give [click to continue...]
Election Day came, Election Day went. Each American experienced the ensuing, nail-biting days differently. We are delighted that several disability allies – from both parties – won their races. We look forward to partnering with them and others in the future. Disability or no disability, the voting process during a pandemic was a feat. This feat was [click to continue...]
It is a common statement in disability circles that, if you live long enough, you will join us. Part of our key mission here at RespectAbility is to help people understand the blessings we can experience even as we deal with the challenges that a disability can raise, and how much value we can bring [click to continue...]
In this week’s Shabbat Smile, Matan Koch, Director of Jewish Leadership at RespectAbility, and Benjamin Rosloff, a Jewish Inclusion Fellow in our National Leadership Program, talked about Ben’s new idea for a multimedia series, “What Do You Pray For?!” The idea builds off of Ben’s work filming a young boy’s bar mitzvah a few years [click to continue...]
Though tonight begins Shmini Atzeret, this week RespectAbility joyously celebrated Sukkot with a gathering in our virtual sukkah. HUC student and Jewish advisory committee member Rachel Rothstein taught us about the holiday. She opened with upbeat Israeli music, reminding us that the rabbis called Sukkot “the time of our joy”. After performing the ritual of [click to continue...]
RespectAbility mourns the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The NAACP and others have noted that former Pres. William Clinton, when nominating Justice Ginsburg to the Supreme Court, referred to her as the Thurgood Marshall of women’s rights. We in the disability community recognize that, as the author of the landmark Supreme Court [click to continue...]
Taken from RespectAbility’s “Opening Your Virtual Gates” High Holiday Toolkit Providing Accessibility Before the Event: On your organization’s sign-up form, ask registrants if they need any accommodations to effectively participate in the event. Additionally, provide a name, Email, and phone number for someone who can assist people with accommodation requests. Providing Documents to Attendees Prior [click to continue...]
I write you today with a story and a request. It was a year ago this week on the Jewish calendar that RespectAbility decided it was time for me to move from Boston to Los Angeles to take the reins of our Los Angeles-based Jewish projects. Los Angeles (and everywhere else) has a shortage of [click to continue...]
Michelle Friedman, vice chair of the board of Keshet and on Keshet’s board of governance and development committees As a woman who grew up in a strongly identified observant family, attended Jewish day school and camp, and had a bubby who devoted herself to Jewish organizations, the obligation of tikkun olam, chesed and serving the community were [click to continue...]
As you have no doubt read over the past several Shabbat Smile emails, RespectAbility has been conducting a seven-part Disability Access and Inclusion Training Series for Jewish Organizations. While we plan on conducting more trainings in the future, for now we are happy to share with you that all seven trainings are live on our [click to continue...]
