Bo is an unusual Torah portion, in that it opens in the middle of a story – the story that immediately precedes the greatest event in our people’s history. The final three plagues – swarms of [...]
As a lifelong Ramahnik and Ramah California Tikvah staff member, I was excited to spend time at the newest Ramah camp in Northern California (“Ramah Galim”) this past summer, helping start a [...]
This week’s Torah portion, Metzora, is a challenging one, to say the least. It begins by describing steps that must be taken by the priests when they learn that someone has leprosy. The leper has [...]
In any Jewish sacred space, our eyes will be drawn in some way upward to the ner tamid, the eternal light. A symbol of God’s eternality, nearly every Jewish sanctuary will have some kind of [...]
Disability is common; inclusion, less so. As Jews, we have an obligation to all of our people, regardless of ability. There has been increased attention to this issue in recent years, but there [...]
A few months ago, I had the honor of being the keynote speaker at The Matan Institute for Early Childhood Educators. My topic? Defining inclusion in order to build a classroom for all students. [...]
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 [...]
The largest minority in America is the population of people with disabilities. Children live in a world full of people who are different from each other in all sorts of ways. Helping them to [...]
This post, written by Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, originally ran on The New Normal Blog of the NY Jewish Week. As someone with a disability myself, and who also knows what it means to parent a child [...]
Written by Lisa Friedman, Matan’s Manager of Social Media and Alumni Networks. It’s not hard to teach our children to be accepting of disabilities. Children are naturally eager and excited to [...]