Disability Inclusion

The Harold and Renee Berger Synagogue Network for Engaging Families with Young Children | Jewish Spaces: Ensuring We All Belong

Embracing Jews with
Disabilities

Making a More Inclusive
Community

Jewish Learning Venture supports Jewish communities to provide access to the full range of Jewish experience to individuals with disabilities and their families. With Whole Community Inclusion, we prepare Jewish professional and volunteer leaders to embrace people of all abilities.

10 ACTIVE ORGANIZATIONS

meet regularly to share their inclusion best practices in the Jewish Special Needs/Disability Inclusion Consortium of Greater Philadelphia.

15 SYNAGOGUE INCLUSION
COMMITTEES

are supported by JLV.

synagogues and Jewish organizations received consulting services provided by Jewish Learning Venture, customized to make their educational programs more inclusive of individuals with disabilities.

FEBRUARY IS “JDAIM”

Jewish Disability, Acceptance and Inclusion Month

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IN MY KEHILLAH

A BOOK ABOUT FRIENDS WITH DISABILITIES

We celebrated a year of JLV’s first children’s book and created new lesson plans for educators to use with the book.

30 SYNAGOGUES

participated in the 6th annual JDAIM Shabbat Across Philadelphia, reaching more than 3000 members.

“Working with people who are different from me has helped me harness a great deal of empathy.”

- TAP participant

“As parents of a child who is easily over stimulated, it means so much to me and my husband to have sensory-friendly programming to bring him to.”

- Participant at a WCI Sensory-Friendly event

“You gave us so much insight into each of our personal learning and teaching styles, as well as what we can do better as an institution. I know we will be able to reach more students because of it!”

- Congregational educator

“TAP has changed how I view people with disabilities immensely…and how I view people and situations as a whole.”

- Participant in the Teen Assistant Program

“The workshop made me think about the actual seder that I have and how we can better engage my son with special needs. I realized that we need to engage him as much as possible so he feels like he’s truly a part of the seder.”

- Parent participant in a WCI workshop on adapting the seder for participants’ accommodations

“As both an agency professional and the chair of a local synagogue Inclusion committee, I have found belonging to the JLV Consortium invaluable. The connections I have made strengthen my work, focus my thinking, and help to bring all of us working in this arena closer together.”

- Sara Crimm, Inclusion Chair of Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El and Director, Families CCAN

368 TEENAGERS

have been trained to support and advocate for students with disabilities in the Reta Emerson Fellowship/Teen Assistant Program since its launch in 2004.

With a grant from the Covenant Foundation, we are training educators to reach out to families raising Jewish children with disabilities, design engaging programming, and create innovative at-home kits. jkidACCESS Guides are made possible with a grant from the Covenant Foundation.

FAMILIES

participated in sensory-friendly Jewish programs.

CONGREGATIONAL EDUCATORS

Served as jkidACCESS Guides and developed new relationships and engagement strategies for families.

Parents/caregivers received support through WCI initiatives, and jkidACCESS trainings

I just wanted to tell you that I really enjoyed this. So much of “the disability experience “ is being isolated from other people, because the rest of the world just has no concept of our lives. It was really nice just to be able to talk to people with whom I had a common frame of reference on life experiences. So thank you for planning and hosting. I thought it was very worthwhile.

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