A Call for Justice – Parshat VaYeira

Our patriarch Abraham is venerated by our tradition for many good reasons. He is a most dedicated and obedient servant to God, having been willing to leave his homeland with his family and travel [...]

Give the Kid a Pencil

When we, at Matan, discuss what it means to include every student in Jewish education, we often refer to such things as creating welcoming spaces, using differentiated instruction to meet a wide [...]

Bison Have Inclusive Instincts

  This summer, my family took an eight-hour tour of Yellowstone National Park. We saw flora and fauna, smelled sulfur coming from geysers, got rained on, took many photos and heard more [...]

Included, Everyone

The following post originally ran on the blog of the Huffington Post. The poster for a middle school dance at my son’s school was blocked out in uneven, handwritten letters: SCHOOL [...]

Everyone on the Ark – Parashat Noach

Midrash is a rabbinic commentary on the bible that clarifies legal points so that we can derive lessons through literary devices. We use stories, parables, and legends to help understand, fully [...]

A Normal Dyslexic Day

This post, written by a 16-year-old with dyslexia, originally ran on the blog of Learning Ally, a national non-profit dedicated to helping blind, visually impaired and dyslexic students succeed [...]

Of Every Kind – Parashat Bereshit

The Torah opens with the story of creation. In the first chapter of Genesis, we are taught that all people were created in the image of God. The text relates that God created fish “of every [...]