By Rabbi Margot Stein, Board Member and Consultant, Whole Community Inclusion
I have been watching the Olympics with a mixture of delight and disbelief. The athletes are so extraordinary. A lifetime of relentless preparation has brought them to this moment, the pinnacle of desire, ambition and performance. Most are fierce competitors, yet expected to be generously accessible to the media and humble in interviews. I am also aware that many of these young athletes have required an infusion of enormous resources, from taxpayers in general and from their families most especially. Parents and siblings have had to uproot their lives and turn their priorities upside down to enable these talented competitors to hone their skills by training with the best coaches and traveling the world perfecting their performances.
At the same time, we are hearing about Putin’s attitude toward gays and his government’s continued hostility toward the the rights of gay citizens. The international outcry carried some strength initially, but clearly has melted into the background as the games themselves have been front and center. I doubt a single athlete has refused to attend these Olympic games out of a sense of moral outrage or solidarity for the human rights violations endured by the gay community.
As a parent of a special needs child, one who is particularly athletic and enjoys participating in Special Olympics basketball, among other sports, I am struck by the parallels. Like typical Olympians, our Special Olympians require families to turn their lives upside down, and to bring huge resources to bear in order to help our children develop their potential. Just as an uncoached skier cannot hope to reach the podium, our kids are unlikely to achieve success without coaching from a whole team of therapists, medical specialists, educators, and community professionals. My own Special Olympian can make a three-point shot or a layup, run fast, and loves to try tricks like those featured by the Harlem Globetrotters. But he relies on coaches and buddies to keep him in the game.
This dependence on supports in order to participate touches upon the human rights issue that concerns me now: the lack of outcry by an indifferent public to the many ways in which our children are shut out of the Jewish community. Solidarity and moral fortitude dissipate when the price tag rises or when typically-developing kids need to move over and make space for their peers with special needs. In theory, most people support the rights of special needs individuals. Jewish Disabilities Awareness Month (JDAM) is an opportunity to challenge all of us to evaluate and make further changes in the way we conduct our Jewish community affairs so that families with special needs are fully included and, yes, even embraced.
One setting that is going to require a lot more attention is the supplementary religious school. Very few of us can honestly say that our local synagogue is doing everything it can to accommodate different learning needs in its afternoon classrooms, or providing a roadmap for parents and teachers to work together to assess needs and implement supports. Even fewer can say they have access to spiritual support for families with special needs, such as sensitive counseling, guidance, networking and socializing opportunities or even Shabbat and holiday celebrations that are particularly welcoming to families with differences.
Whole Community Inclusion is an initiative of Jewish Learning Venture that seeks to partner with synagogues to implement training and support for educators to learn how to work with different types of learners in a single classroom; it offers webinars for parents and educators to learn specific skills or work through issues surrounding inclusion; it hosts play dates for younger children that include sensory breaks and a variety of supports; and it works to integrate awareness of special needs throughout all the programs, trainings and consultation offered by Jewish Learning Venture to the Greater Philadelphia Jewish community.
I support Whole Community Inclusion because I see that there is an increasing urgency for strategies and accommodations that address the needs of those who learn differently. Like the young Olympians on TV this month, our kids require some extra resources. But that’s OK, because I