By Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer, Director, Whole Community Inclusion As part of my work directing Jewish Learning Venture’s Whole Community Inclusion initiative, I have the honor of working with leaders from schools, synagogues, and organizations across the area that are doing the import work of making their communities more accessible and welcoming for people with disabilities and their families. While we are barely half-way through January, I am looking towards February, Jewish Disability Awareness & Inclusion Month (JDAIM). Though we know that inclusion is a 365-day-year effort, JDAIM is a unified national initiative to raise disability awareness and support efforts to foster inclusion [...]

By Kareen Hartwig As chair of the 2015-2016 One Book, One Jewish Community Implementation Team I was asked to share about why I continue to help make this program happen year after year. The answer is simple, I like being a part of a team of wonderful, talented individuals that truly has a worthwhile purpose and a specific mission. A mission which I have found compelling and relevant for the nine years of the program. While it is not always easy to find that “One Book”, year after year the team perseveres until "the" book is discovered and chosen. OBOJC fulfills a great [...]