October is celebrated as National Disability Employment and Awareness Month (NDEAM). This month provides employers with the opportunity to reflect on ways to increase accommodations and foster inclusion for their employees. It also serves as a platform for job seekers to receive support in finding inclusive jobs, and for employees to advocate for necessary workplace [click to continue...]
“How can my faith community become better at including people with disabilities?” This question, raised by people with disabilities, clergy, lay leaders, and community members, is why Faith Inclusion and Belonging is one of RespectAbility’s four pillars. Spirituality and faith are incredibly important to many disabled people. The Faith Inclusion and Belonging team recognizes that [click to continue...]
In celebration of our newsletter edition on disability and religious education, my colleagues, Shelly Christensen and Ben Bond, invited me to share a brief reflection on my own personal experience, from being a young Catholic with a reading disability in both public and private school, and through my journey of becoming an advocate for disability [click to continue...]
Have you ever been at a staff meeting to plan an event, class, service, or project, and one voice spoke clearly at just the right moment: “Have we thought about how this will affect [insert name of particular individual or group you are thinking about]?” Perhaps you have been that voice. In seeking to include [click to continue...]
The profile of bar and bat mitzvah recently got a boost thanks to Adam Sandler’s 2023 movie You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah. While the movie takes a playful look at how plans for a girl’s bat mitzvah unravel over a popular boy, the institution of bar and bat mitzvah has been [click to continue...]
Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism, offers us a beautiful explanation for those who convert to Judaism. Conversion isn’t seen as a choice as much as it is a calling—specifically a calling from Abraham and Sarah who are considered the forebearers of Judaism. The souls of their children are thought to be dispersed throughout the world, some [click to continue...]
The Jewish High Holidays are a time of coming together. Many Jews return to their hometowns for traditional Rosh Hashana meals and to break Yom Kippur fasts with their families. Jews who attend synagogues frequently welcome people whose attendance is more sporadic. The latter group often includes people with disabilities, who find synagogue attendance difficult [click to continue...]
For me, the musical background of the High Holiday season is my friend Neshama Carlebach gently inviting us to “Return to who you are, return to what you are.” Modern ideas of Teshuvah tend to focus on repentance and on forgiveness. Literally, the Hebrew word Teshuvah means “Return.” Maimonides tells us we have accomplished Teshuvah [click to continue...]
During our summer recess at RespectAbility, I was given the opportunity to serve as the Pastor of Pilgrim Pines Summer Camp in Southern California. I have written about Pilgrim Pines in a past newsletter edition regarding its inclusion of folks with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Pilgrim Pines is a profoundly sacred place for me. It [click to continue...]
The Faith Inclusion and Belonging Team traveled to Waco, TX to participate in the Institute on Theology and Disability at Truett Seminary at Baylor University at the end of June. Founded in 2010 by RespectAbility board member, Bill Gaventa, the Institute annually gathers theologians, researchers, thought leaders, practitioners, and clergy to learn from each other. [click to continue...]
