Faith and Spirituality

As we begin to cautiously look towards the future and imagine the new shapes that institutions – such as schools, synagogues and other organizations – may take on, it is crucial that accessibility be considered while laying these frameworks. Right now, we are beginning to think about what education may mean for this fall. We strive for balance, to ensure that students can learn, teachers can work and everyone can stay safe. In doing so, we need to focus on how this can also serve students with disabilities. If this is a concern for you or your child, RespectAbility has put together a wonderful resource guide at https://www.respectability.org/virtual-education/.

At the same time, on our Jewish calendars, the return to school is when we begin thinking about the High Holidays and how we will observe them. We need to make sure to create as much of a community as possible, where all are welcome and able to participate, even if we are not all physically together. Keep an eye out early next week for a new guide from RespectAbility, released in conjunction with many of our webinar partners, on exactly this question. [continue reading…]

As we head into Shabbat, I wanted to offer some highlights from Tuesday’s 5th session of our Disability Access and Inclusion Training Series for Jewish Organizations, “How to Ensure a Welcoming Lexicon, Accessible Websites and Social Media and Inclusive Photos.”

An organization’s website, in today’s digital world, can be seen as its front lobby – and, given that many physical office buildings are closed right now, most connecting between the public and organizations takes place online, making it our only front door. This webinar addressed how to open that door for everyone.

Our expert panelists – Tatiana Lee, Hollywood Inclusion Associate at RespectAbility; Sharon Rosenblatt of Accessibility Partners; and River McMican of Keshet – offered key recommendations for making our digital platforms welcoming to people with disabilities. Here are some points they offered: [continue reading…]

This week, almost 400 people registered for the exciting session, “How to Ensure Accessible Events: Both Live and Virtual Across All Platforms.” By now, you’re probably aware of our  Disability Access and Inclusion Training Series for Jewish Organizations and Activists offered by a coalition of over 45 Jewish organizations. If not, this week is the place to start. Perhaps the most exciting thing about our record-breaking numbers is that, even if everyone only follows the tips and tricks we gave this week, it would be a quantum leap forward in access and inclusion for the Jewish world. Combining that with next week’s session, “How to Ensure a Welcoming Lexicon, Accessible Websites and Social Media and Inclusive Photos,” we will literally revolutionize the way your organization approaches disability inclusion. There is amazing learning to be acquired in all seven webinars; yet if your time is limited, I strongly recommend watching the accessible recording of this week’s webinar, and then register for the one on Tuesday. [continue reading…]

RespectAbility was thrilled that nearly 200 participants from six different countries including the United States, Canada, Israel, United Kingdom, Germany and Argentina registered to attend the informative and innovative webinar held on July 7th entitled `How to Recruit, Accommodate and Promote Jewish Leaders with Disabilities.” This session was the third in a series of seven such webinars generously funded by The Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles through a Cutting Edge Grant, The Diane and Guilford Glazer Philanthropies, and The Charles & Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation among others. Additionally, nearly 45 local and national/international Jewish organizations are serving as co-promoters for this series.

As Co-Chair of RespectAbility’s Global Jewish Inclusion work, I was pleased and proud to serve as moderator for this stellar webinar in tandem with the superb panelists Lee Chertosky, and Lori Golden. [continue reading…]

More than 200 people registered for the exciting session “Disability Access and Inclusion Training Series for Jewish Organizations and Activists” offered by a coalition of over 40 Jewish organizations. “How to Advance Disability Inclusion in Jewish Education” debunked the long-held belief that the Jewish world did not have educational models for students with disabilities. More than that, it highlighted three of those models, any or all of which might be of use to your community as you grapple with that all-important value of Mi Dor l’Dor – from generation to generation, passing the Torah into the hands of all of our children, and successfully including children with disabilities.

Our three panelists – moderator Meredith Polsky of Matan (sadly, I can claim no relation), Lianne Heller of Sulam and Debbie Niderberg of Hidden Sparks – each introduced us to both the founding stories of their organizations and what this genesis meant for their model. [continue reading…]

More than 100 people joined the first session of the new “Disability Access and Inclusion Training Series for Jewish Organizations and Activists” offered by a coalition of over 40 Jewish organizations. The session “Inclusion as a Jewish Value” laid the groundwork for the other six sessions, not only demonstrating clearly that inclusion is present even in our earliest texts, but also responding to common misconceptions and obstacles.

Aaron Kaufman, Senior Legislative Associate at the Jewish Federations of North America, who has cerebral palsy, shared with us how his Judaism informed his leadership in disability policy, and his disability gave him a unique facet to lead in the Jewish world. He was also quick to point out that this was nothing new, and that in fact Moses – our greatest teacher – himself had a disability. Aaron also lined up a number of common concerns raised about practicing disability inclusion, from a perceived conflict with other inclusion needs to a perception of cost. Aaron responded factually, pointing out that disability cut across all categories, and that everyone could join the disability community eventually. He also pointed out that the financial cost of accommodation was low. [continue reading…]

I hope that you are staying safe and healthy. Before I begin our weekly exploration of Jewish disability inclusion, I must begin the Shabbat Smile by noting that this is a gut-wrenching time in our nation. We are all dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and massive job loss challenges. Now the uprisings taking place across America have illuminated the impact of racism on society. The recent murders of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and Breonna Taylor by Louisville Metro police are a reminder that key parts of our criminal justice system are broken. The false accusal of two Black men for the drowning of Alejandro Ripley, a nonverbal 9-year-old with Autism, offers another example of the harmful impact of discrimination. [continue reading…]

Question: What do Shavuot (Shavuos) and COVID-19 have in common? Answer: The call for faith, prayer, and hope . . . and the comfort of cheesy (or non-cheesy) blintzes (or gluten-free blintzes). It is also said that if you put two blintzes side by side on your plate, then you have the visual image of a Torah. Nice, right? Experiential learning. [continue reading…]

With every day rolling into the next, it’s nice to know that in the U.S. the calendar marks that we have a long weekend. Memorial Day – America’s Yom Ha’Zikaron – is a day we set aside to remember all our military personnel who died while serving in the U.S. military, helping to ensure America’s four freedoms; freedoms that FDR articulated in his transformative State of the Union Address in January of 1941:

1. Freedom of Speech
2. Freedom to Worship
3. Freedom from Want; and, last but so relevant today
4. Freedom from Fear.

Yes, we underscore that FDR should have – and could have – done more to save countless lives during the Holocaust. Yet is also said that his powerful “Four Freedoms” speech and vision transformed our nation and the world. He projected the idea of all Americans pulling together (and needing to continue to do so) to face a moment of crisis.

Here we are, yet again, in a monumental moment of crisis. An ongoing moment where three of these four freedoms are in jeopardy: our freedom to worship remains remote and virtual; close to 39 million Americans’ freedom from want is now, at best, on hold; and freedom from fear – fear of the virus, for every inhabitant worldwide, awaiting a vaccine. [continue reading…]