אֲדַבְּרָה-נָּא
שלושה שבועות. שלושה מפגשי שיח. שלוש נקודות מבט לא שגרתיות על הסכסוך.
A Diverse Community
Our central task is to remove barriers in order to ensure that people of all abilities are valued equally and fully, and every member of our community has the opportunity to participate and contribute.
‘MAKE ROOM FOR US’ - people with disabilities throughout Israel who speak up about being excluded from society.
launched by The Ruderman Family Foundation in partnership with Bizchut and Link20.
Our Vision
We view our congregations as quality models of community integration.
The IMPJ congregations throughout the country are active in a variety of social involvement programs and encourage social responsibility. In addition, the IMPJ's congregations are rich in community and spiritual activities that are so important to many people with disabilities who experience exclusion and loneliness.
We see in diverse communities in general, and especially in those that integrate people with disabilities, a mutual beneficiaries. The community itself benefits from the process by increasing the number of its members, while at the same time allowing more community members to find their place and feel comfortable. The community learns to develop sensitivity and openness towards its members, another step in realizing its vision.
People with disabilities in the Reform community feel empowered, valuable, active, and can integrate on their own initiative. They become contributors to the community at their own strengths, with true goals of reducing loneliness and finding more responsiveness to both spiritual and personal needs.
We therefore set ourselves the goals:
To Increase the number of people with disabilities participating in the Movement's communities.
To Ensure a sense of comfort and well-being for each person in our communities.
To Change paradigms, and encourage learning, inclusion and acceptance among our communities.
To make the communities of our Movement accessible to everyone.
Bait BaKehilah
A network of homes for people with developmental disabilities.
In recent years there has been a growing trend of closing large institutions serving people with disabilities and transferring tenants to various housing frameworks in the community. The IMPJ seeks to integrate into this trend and become a supportive social network within the community. IMPJ's flagship program for integration is Beit BaKehilah - a network of homes for people with developmental disabilities amongst and throughout our congregations.
Programs for Inclusion of People with Disabilities in the IMPJ congregations:
Cooperation with a day care center for people with intellectual disabilities.
The kindergartens employ persons with disabilities.
Children with disabilities are integrated into the education system.
The youth movement includes students with disabilities.
A special program for Bar / Bat Mitzvah ceremonies for 40 children with autism each year.
Joint activity with Beit Perry (Alut - Autism) and Beit Halumi (Akim - intellectual disability).
The Community Contact Beit Hanna - a home for people with Down Syndrome.
The Leo-Baeck Education Center has an integration program for children with autism and a training apartment for community housing.
Regular activity with the "Friendship House" - a hostel for autistic adults aged 18-25. We hold Shabbat receptions once a month and collaborations on holidays, including their participation in holidays here (for example - Purim).
Several weddings were held for adults with disabilities - Down Syndrome and more.
One of the congregation's kindergartens is adjacent to a kindergarten with hearing impairments, and joint activities take place - a shofar workshop on the High Holidays, a graduation ceremony, Shabbat experiences in the synagogue and more.
We invest quite a bit in integration and special education classes at the Ushiskin School. About 2-3 hours per class.
Special rooms for disabled people were built in the center of Jaffa and a range of assistance services were provided.
The informal curriculum includes youth and adults with disabilities.
The community offers Shabbat activities for people with disabilities.
The community offers holiday activities for people with disabilities.
The Beit Eden Adoption Program for children with intellectual disabilities: Kabbalat Shabbat every week, marking the holidays, participation of residents in the activities of the community, joint activity with the residents of the school. Pinacel Event: A celebration of mitzvot for the children of Beit Eden .
The education system includes children with disabilities.
The community employs people with disabilities.
Workers with Holocaust survivors who are hospitalized in the mental hospital in Beer Yaakov, as well as with another ward in the same hospital.
A joint activity with Kfar Tikva, close ties, every two weeks Kabbalat Shabbat, also at the holidays.
The informal curriculum includes youth and adults with disabilities.
The community offers Shabbat activities for people with disabilities.
The community offers holiday activities for people with disabilities.
Assistance to families of children with disabilities.
The education system Includes children with disabilities.
'Shabbat Shiluv'
Disability Awareness and Inclusion Shabbat held by the IMPJ Communities in Israel
The IMPJ communities mark the Sabbath of awareness and inclusion of people with disabilities near December 3rd, the International Day for People with Disabilities. The purpose of the Shabbat is to raise awareness to act for the right of every person with disabilities to be included and participate in the community and in society, just as anyone else.
"Shabbat Shiluv" is only the first step in raising awareness of the importance of inclusion. What the community does during the rest of the year will determine our commitment to ensure that all people feel they belong. Therefore, the IMPJ began the process of constructing a multi-year plan that will strengthen and enhance the movement activity in general, and community in particular, around the integration of people with disabilities. We must act to remove barriers and create ways of participation, so that disabilities will not be an obstacle for people who wish to be partners in our communities and in all our activities.
Click here to download an emotional Mi She-Berach blessing, written by Dr. Ruhama Weiss, Director of Blaustein Center for Pastoral Counseling at Hebrew Union College. She wrote this prayer from her own experience being a mother of a child with disabilities and presented it during “Shabbat Shiluv”.
Man stamps many coins with one seal, and each is like the other;
but the King, King of Kings, the Holy One, Blessed be He, stamps every man with the seal of Adam and not one of them is like his fellow.
Therefore every man must say "for my sake was the world created.
Mishnah Sanhedrin 4/5
Contact us
Josh Aronson
People with Disabilities Inclusion Program
13 King David Street, Jerusalem 94101, Israel
Telephone: 050-9876356 Fax: 02-6203446
Email: disabilities@reform.org.il
To support the program, make a donation designated to the IMPJ Disabilities Inclusion Program.
