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Speakers:
Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, President, RespectAbility and Co-Founder, Mizrahi Family Charitable Fund
Tatiana Lee, Inclusionist, RespectAbility
Matan Koch, Director of RespectAbility California and Jewish Leadership, RespectAbility [continue reading…]
Erev-JDAD participants
Washington, D.C., Feb. 7 – More than 80 Jewish disability advocates joined together for the inaugural Erev JDAD – the eve before Jewish Disability Advocacy Day – to discuss a variety of important topics regarding disability inclusion. Having surveyed attendees’ interests beforehand, hot topics covered twice-over were civic engagement and advocacy, leadership development, synagogue inclusion, and employment. Other topic discussions included self-advocacy, housing, fundraising, early childhood education, Jewish camping, and fighting stigmas.
While JDAD – a day of civic education and lobbying organized by the Jewish Federations of North America and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism – has been in existence for 10 years, this is the first formal gathering bringing some of the advocates that come in from across the country together to collaborate. Conceived by RespectAbility, the idea of Erev JDAD was to enable JDAD attendees from around the country to be able to have more time to network with each other – sharing their community’s best practices and planting the seeds for new ones. [continue reading…]
Shabbat Shalom,
This Shabbat begins the month of February, better known to the Jewish disability world as JDAIM, Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance and Inclusion Month (the “A” now stands for two words). It is a month full of activity in the Jewish world. As this Shabbat comes to a close, I will fly from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., both to attend Jewish Federation of North America’s Jewish Disability Advocacy Day (JDAD) and to co-host Erev-JDAD, a gathering the eve before, of nearly 80 JDAD attendees, to brainstorm around pressing issues facing the Jewish disability community, and to invigorate collaboration. I will report back on that in next week’s Shabbat Smile, but for this week I wanted to make a pitch to you about the importance of making sure that this work is a year-round endeavor. [continue reading…]
Ash Williams with RespectAbility Staff and Fellows
Rockville, Maryland, January 24 – Gender education is necessary to creating an inclusive and safe space free of hatred where trans people can fully participate in their place of work. Ash Williams visited RespectAbility and delivered a three-hour long training on the importance of gender-based terminology, pronouns, advocacy, inclusion and intersectionality.
Williams divided us into four groups to talk about gender-based terminology. Each group was given two words and the groups shared what those words meant to them. Words included transition, cis, transphobia, trans-misogyny, and trans. Ash recalled multiple workshops where people had hesitation over how words were defined for them so this activity expresses the importance of gender terminology being used contextually and not in a vacuum defined by others.
At RespectAbility it is common for people to introduce themselves with their names and pronouns at meetings, a practice that was put in place earlier this year prior to this Fellowship cohort. When someone asked about not being asked to identify their pronouns – in this situation because this individual was fluid in the pronouns this individual chose to use on any given day – Williams shared the importance of increasing choice by asking future Fellows to “share your pronouns if you want to.” Williams also added that the word “preferred” should never be used when asking for pronouns because a person’s pronouns are the only way they can be addressed. Using “preferred” waters down the importance and makes it harder for trans people to be present in the room. Williams also advised adding “is there anything else you want us to know about you so we can better support you” to our accommodation request forms. [continue reading…]
Read the webinar transcript
Download the accessible PowerPoint
Watch the webinar on YouTube with open captions
Speakers:
Tracie DeFreitas, Lead Consultant – ADA Specialist, Job Accommodations Network
Moderated by Matan Koch, Director of Project Moses and General Counsel, RespectAbility
At RespectAbility, we believe strongly that the greatest motivator and argument around inclusion is the value that it brings both to the organization and to the person. Even with this backdrop, however, we recognize that parties will occasionally find themselves at points of disagreement, and at that point, it becomes important for everyone to know the nature of their legal rights and obligations. This session covered those topics, including the special sensitivities and limitations applying to nonprofit organizations.
My name is Matan Koch and I am RespectAbility’s Director of Jewish Leadership. Over the next few weeks you will notice that the Shabbat Smile continues its focus on the very best practices and exemplars of Jewish inclusion. The primary goal is to bring a new substance to your Shabbats. Both the weekly messages and our soon-to-be-redesigned archive will become a go-to resource as you work to advance inclusion in your own communities. Don’t worry – we will still bring you key announcements that you need to know, along with the very best wisdom from our Jewish inclusion professionals and our expert allies at other organizations, but I see potential for something even more unique.
Last week I was privileged to attend the Union for Reform Judaism’s biennial conference, proudly proclaimed to be the largest gathering of Jews in North America. As is often the case, I was invited to speak on a panel with brilliant colleagues, in this case Pamela Rae Schuller and Rabbi Rebecca Dubowe, in a session on synagogue inclusion.
Shalom friend!
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! With so much goodness to go around, here are several very important invitations and updates:
In this week’s Torah portion, we read about the death of Sarah, but more importantly we read the most fascinating exchange around the purchase of her grave plot. The people of the land on which Abraham finds himself greatly respect him and venerate him. As such they are very eager to give him the plot that he wants for free. They make no bones about the fact that they are doing favors for someone that they believed to be “a mighty prince in their midst.”
Abraham refuses this generosity, and insists on giving market value for the property. The choreography of the scene could not be clearer. They are so awed by the opportunity to do something for such a prince that they wish to do it for free, just to show respect. He not only pays, but bows low to make sure that his indication is that he means to give equivalent respect in return.
Washington, D.C., September 20 – Motivated by their own experiences, five self-advocates shared their stories of perseverance and success at RespectAbility’s Capitol Hill Summit Event, From Washington to Hollywood and Beyond: The Future of Americans with Disabilities.
“The disability rights movement is at its best when people with disabilities are leaning in at tables among decision-makers and leading in every field. That includes having businesses, nonprofits hire people with disabilities,” said Nicole LeBlanc, who moderated the panel entitled “Success Stories of Self-Advocates.” The panel exemplified this idea as it featured professionals from multiple fields with visible and nonvisible disabilities. The panelists shared personal experiences navigating their disabilities in both their personal and professional lives. [continue reading…]
