A good resource for learning about Pesach (Passover).

Here is a helpful reflection on Pesach titled: Passover: Why Redemptive Things Happen to Good People.

One of the questions from the article that I find interesting is:

Is freedom escape from pain or is it embracing our challenges and using them as a catapult for inner growth?

I would be interested to know how other people with disabilities experience the G-d of Pesach and what freedom looks like in the live of people with disabilities.

Reading this reflection and looking at the questions it poses Makes me want to share a reflection of my own:

I must first say that I am not Jewish, but as a person who identifies as a Christian with a disability I find resonance and hope in the story of the Passover. Because the Jewish community is about to begin the observance of Pesach I wanted to comment about the significance the holiday holds for me.

The story of passover has always had a resonance with me as a person who lives with a disability. The are ways people with disabilities are made disabled by the barriers communities erect. Some of these barriers include buildings without ramps and systems that do not prepare for the presence and participation of people with disabilities.

Some of the barriers to freedom also include the ways I erect barriers for myself that keep me from realizing the fullness of who G-d has called me to be.

In the light of this, I need to read and hear stories about a G-d who partners with people to overcome the ways we enslave ourselves and others. The G-d of the Passover is a G-d who hears and responds to the cries of G-d’s people.
The G-d of the passover is with us as we work to build communities where everyone, persons with and without disabilities, have opportunities to be who they are without the barriers of shame, inaccessibility, ignorance, fear, and isolation.

At Passover and everyday may we partner with G-d to be agents of liberation, hope, and possibility in communities where hopelessness too often rules the lives of too many.

What are the stories in your life that speak of the the journey you are making toward freedom?

Another helpful question may be to ask are there ways in which my actions and/or inactions are keeping others from freedom/liberation?

Interfaith Disability Connection Podcast- Episode #4

An excerpt from the Theology Forum that took place during the 2009 Interfaith Disability Connection Summit on Sunday August 9, 2009.

The question posed by forum moderator The Reverend Benno D. Pattison was: Does your tradition provide guidance about who people with disabilities are or why people have disabilities? Does this explanation help or hinder congregations in your tradition as they seek to welcome and include people with disabilities?

Responding to this question are:

Reverend Guy Pujol, Executive Director, AIDS Alliance for Faith and Health and Faculty Member, Interdenominational Theological Center

Dr. Khalid Siddiq, Atlanta Islamic Community Leader

Rabbi Mark Zimmerman, Congregation Beth Shalom, Dunwoody, GA

Download this episode (right click and save)

The Summer edition of Making A Difference Magazine from the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities features five articles about the power congregations have to be places of inclusion and opportunity for people with disabilities and their families.

Making A Difference Magazine Summer 2009

Thank you to Reverend Bill Gaventa, Ginny Thornburgh, Imam Furqan Muhammad, Pastor Devin Strong, Rabbi Harvey Winokur, Reverend Denny and Varion Spear, Pat Nobbie and many others for their work in lifting the profile of this important issue.

Thank you to The Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities for shining a light on religious leaders and congregations who actively engaging people with disabilities in worship, study, service and leadershi.

Check out the most recent episode of PBS’ Religion & Ethics Newsweekly. The episode features Reverend Bill Gaventa and people with disabilities and their families from Christian, Jewish and Muslim congregations

Episode #3 of the Interfaith Disability Connection Podcast features Mrs. Betty Hasan-Amin and Reverend Alan Roof. Mrs. Hasan-Amin is the Founder of You-Ni-Verse Greeting Cards and a member at Masjid Al-Muâ??Minun. Reverend Roof serves as a Chaplain at Shepherd Center. Alan is an Ordained Minister in the United Church of Christ.

Betty and Alan are two individuals who helped plan and deliver the 2008 That All May Worship: Beyond The Ramp Conference. They discuss the impact that attending the 2008 event has had on them and help us preview what is most exciting to them as the prepare to participate in the 2009 Interfaith Disability Connection Summit on Sunday, August 9, 2009.

They also discuss why the think YOU Should plan to attend!

You can listen to the podcast by clicking the play button below:

Download this episode (right click and save)

I am a frequent reader of “Or Am I?” a blog by Rabbi Paul Kipnes. Rabbi Kipnes. Rabbi Kipnes in the Senior Rabbi at Congregation Or Ami in Calabasas, CA. I have read many posts about the congregation’s commitment to welcome people with disabilities and their families. This post was a opportunity for me to read more about Rabbi Kipnes and the congregation’s commitment to the full-inclusion of people with disabilities in the Jewish community there.

The congregation’s web site includes a number of wonderful resources for understanding the foundation of the congregation’s commitment to people with disabilities and their families.

Congratulations to Rabbi Kipnes and the Congregation Or Ami Family on their much deserved EP Maxwell J. Schleifer Distinguished Service Award.

I am inspired by the congregation’s efforts and I hope you are too.

Do you know about a congregation or a leader that is doing wonderful things like this?

Interfaith Disability Connection Podcast Episode #1:

In this first podcast of the Interfaith Disability Connection Director Mark Crenshaw interviews Ginny Thornburgh, Director of the Interfaith Initiative at the American Association of People with Disabilities in Washington, DC, Thornburgh will serve as an event facilitator at the 2nd annual IDC Summit this Sunday, August 9, 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia. Click the play button on the player below to listen to the podcast.

Click below to download the podcast to your computer:

Download this episode (right click and save)

Linda Zimmerman, Executive Director of The Amit Program shared a wonderful article from Exceptional Parent Magazine. The article shares wisdom from an amazing group of leaders in Jewish Special Education.

The article titled: Programs of Acceptance and Inclusion In The Jewish Faith begins with a quote from a Jewish teacher who lived during the 1st century B.C.E., Hillel. The quote says:

If I am not for myself, who is for me?

If I am for myself, what am I?

If not now, when?

Pirkei Avot (Ethics of Our Fathers)

The authors of the article go on to look at the need to provide inclusive Jewish education through the lens of the quote. The article is a wonderful resource for parents who have questions about including their children with disabilities.

The article is Co-written by:

Shelley Christensen
Dr. Sara Rubinow Simon
Debbie Gettes
Linda Zimmerman
and Arlene Remz (Check out the links!)

The article offers the perspectives of five women who are in the forefront as leaders in the field of Jewish Special Education. The collected wisdom in the article is invaluable,

A big THANK YOU to Linda for sharing the article! I hope readers gain insight and food for the journey.

American Jewish World Service is taking the opportunity that Jewish Disability Awareness Month provides to make the public aware of the ways their organization supports the work of people with disabilities in the developing world. Read the feature from American Jewish World Service titled: Taking Jewish Disability Awareness Month Global.

The past twenty years have witnessed much progress for people with disabilities here in the United States, so I think it is easy to overlook the life situations of people with disabilities in other parts of the world. Please take a moment to read the article and consider supporting the work of American Jewish World Service to support self/advocacy in other parts of our world.