Last year, the Washington Post listed fourteen common suggestions from people with disabilities collected from a popular Reddit thread. First on the list was, “Don’t tell someone with a [...]
When we run Matan Institute inclusion training sessions for educators and synagogue professionals, we are frequently asked to provide specific ways to help classroom teachers recognize the [...]
You may have heard a joke that goes something like this: God: Do not cook a kid in its mother’s milk. (first found in Exodus 23:19) Moses: OK, God, so keep all meat food away from all dairy food? [...]
When God told Moses to lead the people out of Egypt, Moses was reluctant. He tried to refuse, saying “I have never been a man of words, either in times past or now that You have spoken to Your [...]
Joseph, as Pharaoh’s right-hand man, lived as a prince in Egypt, managing the Pharaoh’s response to the all-pervasive famine. He commanded legions of Egyptian workers, oversaw the storehouses and [...]
In this week’s Torah portion, Miketz, Joseph, who has risen to the role of Viceroy of Egypt, meets his brothers after many years of separation. The brothers last saw Joseph when they left him in [...]
An old disability joke goes: A wheelchair user goes to buy stamps at the post office. She can’t get in because there’s no ramp. She calls to complain. The postmaster says, “That’s ridiculous. We [...]
Could it be that Joseph was a young man who was misunderstood because of some sort of disability that challenged him? We hear stories all too often of those with disabilities who perplex their [...]
In Pirkei Avot Ben Zoma said: “Who is wise? One who learns from every person.” This is a central Jewish value. Everyone has something to learn, and everyone has something to teach. Some people [...]
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 [...]