Cultivating Patience, Re-framing Disability: A Jewish Perspective on Access and Inclusion
Pulpit Guest: Joan Ostrove
Speaking on February 26, 2016 for Jewish Disability Awareness Month
I’m truly honored to be the pulpit guest for this Shabbat, during which we are recognizing Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month. The idea to ask me to do this surfaced at a meeting of Mount Zion’s Accessibility and Inclusion committee, of which I am a member. It was a meeting I was unable to attend, and it was the one at which the committee was figuring out who to invite to be the pulpit guest for this month. Well, you can be sure that I haven’t missed a meeting since! Seriously, I was deeply honored that my fellow committee members thought of me. Please allow me to acknowledge and appreciate all of them now: Allyson Perling, Cantor Spilker, Sue Lund, Sheri Frisque, Mavis Goldstein, Shelly Robbins, Anne Starr, Paula Roston, Sue Summit, Liza Henry (and Batya Spector, who was a member of the committee last year). The Mount Zion librarian, Bob Epstein, has been Incredibly supportive of this work and the library has a growing collection of books on the topic of disability and inclusion. I also want To thank Teresa Matzek and Larry Solomon, both of whom have worked hard on behalf of inclusion efforts. Several of the women on The committee are moms of young people with disabilities. They are fierce, smart advocates on behalf of access and inclusion. It’s an honor to work with them and with everyone on this committee, and to be led in this important work by Allyson Perling. If you want to join us, you’re most welcome.
