The JDAIM Program Guide is Here!
by Shelly Christensen
Check out the 2024 JDAIM Program Guide!
Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance, and Inclusion Month (JDAIM) was launched 15 years ago in February 2009 by members of the Jewish Special Education Consortium. The purpose of JDAIM is to unite Jewish communities to raise awareness and champion the rights of all Jews, including Jews with disabilities, to be respected, valued, and included in all aspects of Jewish community life. From this vantage point, we have watched synagogues, schools, Jewish agencies, national organizations, and even international groups recognize JDAIM with services, programs, guest speakers, resource fairs, and so much more.
As we celebrate the 15th anniversary of JDAIM, we reflect on the intersections of ableism and antisemitism that make our commitment to inclusive communities more important than ever before and emphasize that the work must continue year-round. Looking at the intersection of Jewish and disabled identities, the challenge and opportunity is to ensure growing access to and inclusion within Judaism and Jewish community. Identifying ableism in practices and policies that exclude disabled people is an important step, and one that keeps us centered on true belonging. The JDAIM Program Guide for 2024 includes practical tips and tools to improve access to this community.
Start your JDAIM reflections this year by reading and listening to Rabbi Julia Watts Belser's new book, Loving Our Own Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole. In Loving Our Own Bones, which is the 2024 JDAIM Reads Book Club Selection, Julia brings Jewish sacred texts into relationship with disability culture to deepen conversations about disability, spirituality, and social justice. On February 6, 2pm ET, Julia will join the Faith Inclusion and Belonging team at RespectAbility in conversation about her book. We’ll explore the intersections of access, ableism, and antisemitism in biblical texts and contemporary culture, explore how Shabbat practice can offer us spiritual tools for centering disability wisdom, and consider disability as a generative force that calls us to confront structures of exclusion and recommit to the work of building a more welcoming world. Register here for this free webinar.
RespectAbility is hosting several other events in February. On February 7, we begin a series on Spiritual Dimensions of Trauma, Healing, and Resiliency in which Dr. Karyn Harvey will present her work on Trauma Informed Care and Resilience in the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. On February 15, attend Celebrating Jewish and Disabled Creativity. On February 28, meet Alison Norlian as she gives us a sneak peek to her new film, THIRTEEN.
Throughout the month, communities celebrating JDAIM should also be on the lookout for resources and partnership highlights. Be sure to follow RespectAbility on social media and check out the latest resources on our website, including cross-over resources that celebrate the intersection of disability and Black and African American identities for Black History Month.
RespectAbility is proud to partner with communities of all faiths in their pursuit of disability inclusion and belonging for all. You can learn more about our partnership opportunities on our website: https://www.respectability.org/training-consulting/
Shelly Christensen, MA FAAIDD, is RespectAbility’s Senior Director of Faith Inclusion and Belonging and co-founder of Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance, and Inclusion Month (JDAIM). Shelly will share how JDAIM, recognized in February, has unified the global Jewish community to amplify the voices of people with disabilities and mental health conditions.
From Rabbi Michael Levy:
Perspective on Jewish Disability Inclusion and Awareness from a Disability Activist
In the 1950’s, if the conversation even touched on disability, the adults, often with a strong dose of pity, would wonder “What can we do?” Whatever they did was local, with no concept that the effort could be global. Some of us were overprotected, hidden or even institutionalized “for our own good.”
Now an array of organizations, within and beyond Judaism, tapping global resources, with media coverage, devote an entire month to disability issues. My own parents would have been amazed in what progress has been made in less than half a century.
That said, there are issues of concern.
About Us, not Without Us
Blacks, women and nonbinary groups lead their own awareness campaigns. Why is the Jewish disability awareness led by those who do not have disabilities?
Why is so much material about disability in inaccessible format, to the point where many Jews with disabilities, who don’t have or can’t use computers, are not even aware of our month? Are nonverbal individuals, and people not of typical intelligence involved? What about people with metabolic or chronic health conditions?
And now, to our great sorrow, we have among us those Israeli soldiers and civilians with long-term physical and psychological injuries as a result of the unspeakably brutal attacks by Hamas. ?
True--synagogues, schools, Jewish agencies, national organizations, and even international groups recognize JDAIM with services, programs, guest speakers, resource fairs, and so much more. Yet, none of these entities approached those of us with disabilities about our input, and there is no mandatory organizational accountability for seeking our direct input on an ongoing basis at all organizational levels. How many of the entities mentioned above seek to recruit us as staff and volunteers—not because we have disabilities, but because we are people with talent who can make valuable contributions? Have these entities evaluated themselves to determine whether any architectural, communications, transportation and attitudinal barriers exist with regard to THEM, which segregate us? When planning ALL THEIR activities and programs, do these entities factor in disability-related issues on an ongoing basis? Do they keep in mind that disability will increase with age among their presently able-bodied ranks? Do they keep track of technology, techniques, AI, innovations and health advances that can accelerate our integration, including telephony?
My wish
Let us laud the progress we have made, only until February 29, 2024 when the month ends.
Planning for next year’s month must begin On March 1. Yad Hachazakah, and many disability activists would welcome the opportunity to spearhead the preparations for “our month” in February 2025.
This will entail more than lip service. Accommodations and accessibility arrangements often require the allocation of financial and human resources to make them feasible.
Personally, I look forward to contributing to next year’s program guide, and to receiving it in hard-copy braille so that I can read it aloud as part of presentations wherever I am invited.
Michael Levy, President
Yad Hachazakah, the Jewish Disability Empowerment Center
www.yadempowers.com