I am honoured that Jennifer Mizrahi has asked me to write from Great Britain, where I have lived as an expatriate American for forty-five years, about being Jewish and battling stage 4 breast and lymph node cancer during Covid. I am delighted to share some of my story with you. In a future installment, I [click to continue...]
Adam Bronstone, Director of Planning, Jewish Federation and Jewish Foundation of Nashville and Middle Tennessee shares below about Nashville’s Webinar of Webinars. You can find the webinars to which Adam refers at www.respectability.org/jewish-events. As the pandemic forced every community to pivot to online activities and meetings, the leadership of the Inclusion Committee of the Jewish [click to continue...]
February is one of my favorites months of the year, as it is Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance & Inclusion Month (JDAAIM). I am so excited that the first Shabbat in JDAAIM is Parshat Yitro (Torah Portion Jethro). In this parshah, Yitro sees Moshe (Moses) and the Children of Israel for the first time since the exodus [click to continue...]
It has been said that “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” The COVID pandemic has certainly posed tremendous vocational challenges for people with disabilities, who, despite already experiencing an employment rate less than half of people without disabilities, experienced 40% greater job loss with minimal recovery. It has also provided unprecedented opportunities—to develop [click to continue...]
Before we share some exciting news, we wanted to say something about the events of the past week in Washington, D.C. The violence we witnessed on Capitol Hill was awful, unacceptable and profoundly painful. What we saw happen should never have happened and should never happen again. We also know that people might be facing [click to continue...]
It was June of 1969. I was an 11 ½ year old visually impaired girl leaving home for the first time to attend Jewish overnight camp. I boarded the train to Wisconsin consumed with mixed emotions: already a little homesick and anxious, but also excited. I was excited about the friends coming from my Jewish [click to continue...]
My name is Doctor Hilla Hadas, and I am the CEO of Enosh – The Israeli Mental Health Association. As organizations throughout the world are figuring out how to accomplish their missions in this time of COVID-19, I am pleased to talk about how we did this at Enosh, and how we worked to serve the [click to continue...]
I am a Jewish Inclusion Fellow at RespectAbility, but I’ve always had a complicated relationship with my Jewish identity. I have always enjoyed eating potato latkes at Hanukkah, and appreciated the ritual of reevaluating oneself during the time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but I know very little about Judaism, beyond these cultural touchstones. [click to continue...]
Those who follow the work of RespectAbility know that Lauren Appelbaum, our VP of Communications, is the incredible dynamic force behind our Hollywood Inclusion work. Lauren is also a deeply committed Jew, a graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary, and a superstar Jewish mom. It’s perhaps not surprising, therefore, that Jewish Women International chose Lauren [click to continue...]
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...]
