Recently, more than 60 of the Jewish community’s most dedicated leaders gathered at the Federation to discuss how best to include Jews with special needs into everyday communal life.

Leaders from Jewish schools, synagogues, and agencies throughout Los Angeles recently gathered together to begin a communal discussion called Opening the Gates: Building Inclusive Congregations and Communities for Jews with Special Needs. This new initiative addresses how to bettter welcome people with developmental disabilities (including autism spectrum disorders) into programs and groups within the community.

In addition to speeches by Rabbi Elliot Dorff and Rabbi Mark Diamond, the program featured a keynote presentation by Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson and his son, Jacob, who is autistic. Jacob’s speech provided a unique perspective from a member of Opening the Gates’ target audience, explaining that the times when he was included in the community were some of the happiest days of his life and mentioning his desire to be invited to participate in more Jewish programs and activities.

“Our goal was to leave the participants with an understanding of the necessity for Jewish organizations to publicly declare their openness to persons with disabilities and a willingness to make accommodations to welcome them,” said Nina Pearlson Leung, chair of the Federation Task Force on Jews with Disabilities and Special Needs, as she reflected on the success of the program.

Breaking into smaller groups, participants engaged in dialogue on existing programs and how best to expand them successfully. They also discussed the challenges facing their organizations, and possible topics to cover in the next Opening the Gates meeting.

Opening the Gates is spearheaded by HaMercaz, a Federation program in partnership with Jewish Family Service and seven other local agencies that serves as the central resource for Jewish families raising special-needs children, and was co-sponsored by The Board of Rabbis of Southern California, The Bureau of Jewish Education, and the Kalsman Institute on Judaism & Health.

Plans for a follow-up discussion are already underway for a similar program that will be held in the San Fernando Valley. Leung said, “We hope to build awareness that including persons with disabilities benefits all of us, not just the persons with disabilities, as together we create a more diverse and enriched community in which to live.”

For more information, please contact Michelle Wolf at
(323) 761-8152 or MWolf@JewishLA.org. You can also contact HaMercaz directly at 1-866 -287-8030 or www.hamercaz.org.