I spent some time yesterday with Rabbi Steven Rau, The Director of Life long Learning here at The Temple in Atlanta. I came to meet Rabbi Rau because I heard a wonderful review of a presentation he had givenat the Reform Movement’s Southeast Regional Biennial Convention in Savannah, GA in the fall.

Rabbi Rau was gracious enough to take a few minutes to share with me about the inclusive educational model he, Stacy Levy, and The Temple Education Department have worked to implement.

Here is a link to a story about the program.

The commitment of The Temple to provide an inclusive religious school program for children of all abilities is commendable.

I was excited about my conversation with Rabbi Rau for 3 reasons:

1. We discussed his efforts to share the model they have developed with other congregations both inside and outside the Jewish community.

2. It is my sense that the model is replicable and scalable to the size of the congregation.

3. The Temple Education Staff uses volunteering to support children with disabilities (different learning abilities) as part of a multi-pronged approach to getting and keeping youth connected to Jewish education post Bar/Bat mitvah.

I am grateful to Rabbi Rau, Ms. Levy and the rest of the folks at the Temple for the work they do building and sustaining a community where all people can find and maintain connection in religious school and the larger community.

I am also grateful for the part that programs like this play in raising disability awareness. Children and youth educated in inclusive environments will lead the way in making the world a more just place for people with disabilities in the years to come.

I came across an essay about how, for one Rabbi the Inauguration was a reminder of G-d’s power to break into history and change circumstances.

I found the piece originally on The Jspot. The piece is written by Rabbi Shai Held, a Conservative Rabbi and seminal Jewish thinker:

I have said countless times before: the meaning of the Exodus is that anything is possible, that there is no status quo that cannot be overturned. Imagine a world in which you are a slave, and your father was a slave, and his mother before him, and so on for generations. And then, seemingly suddenly, God intervenes and you are no longer a slave. To be sure, the journey ahead will be long and arduous. Indeed, there will be moments when things seem so frightening and unsettling that you will even find yourself longing for the way things were before. But there is no returning to the way things wereâ?? not ultimately, anyway. The Exodus is a rupture, a break in history, a moment after which all things are new, a moment in and through which all things are possible.

I have a very personal confession to make: over the past couple of years, as my struggle with chronic illness has continued and in many ways intensified, I have found myself less able to talk about the Exodus in this way. Is there really no status quo that cannot be overturned? I have asked myself. What about the pain and fatigue that wrack your body each day? What about the degradations and devastations that pervade the globe and seemingly make a mockery of human dignity and of lifeâ??s meaningfulness? Perhaps all this talk of the Exodus as paradigmatic for human history was just loose talk, just so much Pollyanna nonsense. I have wondered, and lamented the depths to which life seems resistant to, indifferent to, the stories we tell and the narratives we strive to live by.

This morning I feel something I have not felt in quite a long time: I believeâ?? but really believeâ?? in the Exodus again. That which was utterly impossible, indeed unimaginable, will become a reality in just a few short minutes. The United States of America, the great beacon of freedom and democracy, has always been tainted by the monstrous legacy of slavery and the ways it denied that black men and women, too, were created in the image of God and were thus every bit as infinitely valuable as their white counterparts. Today these same United States will swear in its first black president, a black man who will occupy the very house that slaves built so long ago. The status quo has been overturned, repudiated, one might even say redeemed. (This, I hasten to add, remains true regardless of oneâ??s political commitments or affiliations.)

We ought not be deceived. Just as the Israelites faced a long and torturous road to the Promised Land, so also do we Americans face a long and difficult road ahead (and on more fronts than I can begin to list). The Hasidic masters teach that each year we are obligated to re-live the Exodus, to tap into the liberatory energy that the Exodus represents, to reclaim and deepen our own freedom and dignity as Godâ??s creatures. I cannot help but feel that the Exodus is being re-enacted and re-experienced in our day, today.

To be sure, many of the worldâ??s problems will remain as intractable tomorrow as they seem today. On a personal note, my own battle with illness is not likely to disappear soon. Iâ??m still not sure about every status quo being overturnedâ?? at least not before the Messiah comes and enacts a kind of cosmic Exodus for us all. But what Iâ??ve learned this morning is that much of what we take as given and immutable is in fact neither. So I go back to what I have said and taught over and over again: to take Judaism seriously is to believe that the world as it is is not yet the world as it must be, and to know that we are implicated in the sacred task of closing the gap between them. May all of our faith in the possibility of redemption and transformation be renewed and revitalized by this extraordinary day.

â??This is the day which the Lord has made, let us rejoice and delight in it.â?

God bless all of you, and God bless the United States of America.

The bold emphasis has been added by me.

I appreciate the point of Rabbi Held’s writing because I sense something new in the air, but I find myself intrigued by the paragraph I highlighted.

The onset of chronic pain and disability can affect a person’s ability to believe in one’s G-d and in oneself!The onset of chronic pain and disability can and does alter our experiences of community. Chronic pain and disability can and does change those who live with it in so many ways.

This raises several important questions for our congregations, I think.
1. Are we asking people how we can help them?
2. Are we willing to be present to the pain and grief without trying to explain it?
3. Are there ways our congregations can support people in their journeys of questioning and discovery?
4. Do our congregations have care teams and other support mechanisms in place to remain connected to people who are struggling with the onset of chronic pain and disability?

Are there other questions I am forgetting?

It is my hope and prayer that our congregations begin and continue to offer love, support and connection in the difficult and pain-full times in the lives of the members of our communities.

I would love to know what you think?

The National Cathedral in Washington, DC is hosting a National Prayer Service on Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 9:30 AM. Information about the service can be found here.

You can download a copy of the order of service here.

There will be a live webcast of the service here.

Leaders from Christian(Catholic, Orthodox & Protestant), Hindu, Islamic, and Jewish communities are set to participate.

The Reverend Sharon Watkins, General Minister and President, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ in the United States and Canada) is scheduled to deliver the sermon.

The program lists the names of the people who are scheduled to provide sign language interpretation!

The Georgia Aquarium is hosting it’s 1st Abilities celebration. The event will take place February 4-7, 2009. The Abilities Celebration will feature a variety of performers with disabilities, as well as meet & greet sessions with notable individuals with disabilities.

It is wonderful that the aquarium is offering this opportunity. You can get additional information here.

Jewish Family & Career Services will host The Larry Bregman Educational Conference on February 28th & March 1st, 2009. The keynote speaker for the event is Reverend Al Mead and if you heard Al at the 2008 Interfaith Disability Connection Conference you know he will be GREAT!

I have volunteered at the Bregman Conference in the past and it is a wonderful conference. The conference offers a track for self-advocates (people with disabilities) and a track for family members. Both tracks offer education and fun to participants. The workshop lineup looks great!

You can download the Registration form for 2009 Larry Bregman Conference and you can view the website for the conference here.

Please take the time to read This and This.

Each of us possesses the power to offer possibility and hope or wield fear and hopelessness. In this New Year, may each of us choose hope in our relationships and interactions.

“When heart is not small, all things are possible.”

I got the news from PatriciaEBauer.com

I had the amazing experience of planning a retreat that Jean led here in Atlanta in the summer of 2002. I count my time at that retreat as one of the privileges of my life. I found Vanier to be one of the most grace-full people I have met.

The work of L’Arche is an important sign of life for which I am grateful. i am especially grateful for the way L’Arche has become a multi-faith proposition in the last 5 years.

Vanier’s work on behalf fo L’Arche and his writing are significant because they envision disability in profound ways. I am most grateful for Vanier’s insights around relationship building and peace-making. These insights are significant to me because they spring directly from his experience of befriending people with disabilities.

I am thankful to Jean Vanier for his lifetime of service to G-D, to people with disabilities and to our broken world. I am also grateful for awards like the Nation Builder of the Year because they give the world an opportunity to learn about this great servant-leader.

I just read this post from Dave Hindsburger at Chewing the Fat and it made me think.

The question Dave is asked for the survey is: As A Person with A Disability, what do you wish for the world for Christmas? Dave offers a wonderful answer about that everyone should have accessible minds. Please go an read what he wrote if you have a second.

Now this is a blog with a multi-faith audience so I want to change the question a bit to fit the audience..

My question would be: What is your hope for the world in 2009?

Here is my first answer:

I hope for a world that operates out of just a little more hope and a little less fear.

I hope for a world with a little more connection and a little less isolation.

I hope for a world where we make new bonds that help us recognize that each of us has a story to tell and gifts to share.

I hope for a world were we give and receive life-giving love and discard our impulses toward death-dealing hate.

I hope for a world where we cultivate justice with people whose lives often are devoid of the peace that justice brings.

I hope for a world where we create opportunities to cutivate places to face our fears and cross boundaries that seperate us from each other?

I hope for a world where we continue the journey toward eradicating the barriers that too often separate people from each other and those same people from G-d?

I hope for a community that will join with me to turn some of these hopes for the New Year into “hope-filled realities.”

What are your hopes for 2009?