Arlene Remz

Why is Jewish Disability Awareness Month (JDAM) so important? The celebration, now in its third year in communities across North America, not only lets everyone in on the wide variety of services available to people with disabilities and their families (too often a well-kept secret) but, just as important, JDAM raises awareness about this underserved 20 percent of our children and families.  

Here in Greater Boston, when you read over the   you'll be amazed at how much we already have in place in our community.

And when you meet Marie (This issue's "Voice from the Gates"), you'll get a glimmer of what, working together, our communal resources can mean to families who have a member with special needs.

This month also saw a very exciting announcement: the foundation of a new Special Needs and Disabilities Network charged with elevating special needs services and disabilities advocacy among Jewish communities around the globe.  Slated to be housed at the Jewish Funders Network, the new initiative is charged with assessing the current state of funding of special needs programs in the Jewish community, identifying successes that can be duplicated on a larger scale, and bringing attention to underserved areas that would benefit from additional funding.  Click here to read We are at an Important Moment in Special Needs Advocacy from eJewish Philanthropy.

Here at Gateways, we're delighted that our long-time partners Jay Ruderman and Sharon Shapiro of the Ruderman Family Foundation are the catalysts behind the new network. It grew out of last October's ADVANCE conference which brought new awareness of the role of special needs advocacy and services within the Jewish world. ADVANCE, which gathered together more than 100 key Jewish funders, was convened by the Ruderman Family Foundation, along with Jewish Federations of North America and our own Combined Jewish Philanthropies.

We're also proud of the other Gateways advocates, partners and board members involved in the new network, including Gateways board member and Vice President of Development Rachel and Larry Chafetz and the Rita J. & Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation, visionary early funders of our innovative Mitzvah Mensches and B'nei Mitzvah training programs.

As JDAM, this month is a priceless opportunity to engage our synagogues, our schools, our agencies, our children and ourselves in welcoming and serving this important part of the Jewish people. Click here for a full list of Boston-area JDAM events. 

Even so, for our families and our agencies, and strong supporters like CJP and the Ruderman Family Foundation (See Jay's powerful op-ed below), all 12 months - actually, 13 in the Hebrew calendar this year -- are Jewish Disability Awareness Months too.

We invite you to join us in keeping the JDAM spirit alive. To learn more about our services or to become a Gateways supporter or volunteer, visit www.jgateways.org, e-mail info@jgateways.org or call us at (617) 630-9010.

Marie Strazzulla

Marie Strazzulla is a 25-year-old who loves her job. Mostly because no two days are ever the same.

Some days find Marie in the Gateways: Access to Jewish Education office, stamping, filing, collating or her favorite task: shredding ("It's heavy work but it's fun.")

Other days she's at the Gateways Sunday program, where she's responsible for serving dozens of students their mid-morning snack.  "I like the kids," she says. "I know a lot of the teen volunteers from Camp Ramah."

Marie delivering snacks

Like so many other young adults in their first real job, Marie is proud of the new skills she's learning every day.  And, because she has Down syndrome and lives in the Boston area, Marie was able to receive the kind of community support that both trained the Norwood resident and placed her in the job she now loves.

After high school, Marie enrolled in CHAI Works, a program of Jewish Family & Children's Service designed to give adults with disabilities the kind of grounding in real-life work settings needed for jobs in either volunteer or paid positions. Then they make the match, finding just the right person for the job.

Last summer, when Gateways approached CHAI Works to help them find someone to work in their Newton office, Marie was ready and the "shidduch" was quickly made.  To help with the adjustment, her job coach came along the first couple of times. 

These days, Marie takes care of the office tasks that used to pile up, those chores the staff was always too busy to get around to. And each Sunday the students know Marie will appear in their classroom with a cart laden with tantalizing snacks.     

Marie's presence has also had a positive impact on Gateways' staff, reports Executive Director Arlene Remz. "What we didn't realize in the beginning was that, in order to help Marie be successful, we needed to structure the work and be clear in our expectations, breaking things down step-by-step and making sure we were communicating well. It turned out that this is a skill that makes things better in all the work we do."

In addition, she adds, "Marie's success is a very real reminder of Gateways' goals, the hopes and dreams for independence that we have for our students too."  

Marie and Sonni at the sign-in board

Indeed, things have gone so well in the office that, early last fall, Marie was asked to add Sunday program responsibilities to her schedule.

But, as much as Marie's loves her job, another topic that never fails to elicit unbounded enthusiasm is "I Love Lucy." It turns out that, not only does Marie own DVDs containing every episode of the 195s hit series (the ones that make her laugh the loudest: Lucy's grape-stomping, cupcake-manufacturing and candy-testing misadventures), but she's also a storehouse of little-known Lucy trivia. A sampling: The exterior of the house used in the show was the star's actual home, on Beverly Hills' Lexington Street.  

Surprisingly, Marie says her favorite part of her job isn't serving snack to the children or even the shredding, but just spending time with the Gateways staff. "It's seeing all you guys and feeling sort of comfortable," she says with a shy smile. "Everyone here helps me a lot."

To learn more about Gateways, call (617) 630-9010, e-mail info@jgateways.org or visit www.jgateways.org. To learn more about CHAI Works, contact Doreen Cummings at (781) 693-5638 or dcummings@jfcsboston.org or visit www.jfcsboston.org.

Hannah's mom never thought her daughter could find a Hebrew school that was right for her, much less have a bat mitzvah. But last June, after two years in an innovative bar/bat mitzvah class, Hannah, an honors student with Asperger's Syndrome, proudly chanted her Torah portion before 100 friends and family.

Binny flashed a grin as he accepted his siddur at the ceremony with the other second-graders in his day school. But this moment could never have happened a decade ago for a little boy with Down's Syndrome.

Third-grader Justin was either exploding in anger during Sunday school or crying in embarrassment, and his teacher was at her wit's end. Two years later, not only did Justin enthusiastically perform an original song in front of the entire school, he also insisted on going to a Jewish camp last summer. And he had a wonderful time.   

Jay Ruderman

These three Boston-area children - and their Gateways: Access to Jewish Education journeys - have much to teach us about Jewish continuity. What's more, whether our generation engages - or fails to engage -- the nearly 20 percent of Jewish children and their families who live with a disability will determine how inclusive a community we will become.  

We know Jewish education holds the key to our people's survival and always has. Making sure every one of our children receives that birthright is a driving force behind my family foundation's partnership with Gateways, which makes Jewish education a reality for hundreds of children with special needs.

But, as we mark Jewish Disabilities Awareness Month across the country, we're still up against a powerful enemy: ourselves. Although our tradition commands us, in the words of Ethics of the Fathers, to "teach a child according to his way," we've developed another tradition: Closing our eyes and looking the other way when someone doesn't measure up. The cost, we argue, is simply too high to include them.

For parents, learning to accept our children with special needs for who they are, and our own frustrations and disappointments is hard enough. But when our Jewish community turns its back on us, when our schools and shuls aren't welcoming, it's doubly painful and risks alienating all of us.   

The uphill battle for recognition got a boost this month as 14 national funders announced the birth of the Jewish Special Needs Funders Network. This new team grew out of last October's ADVANCE: The Ruderman Jewish Special Needs Funding Conference, serving as a clarion call to funders large and small to face these difficult realities and to step up to do something about them.

Locally, the Boston area is already a laboratory for much of what this new network is aiming to accomplish. We have services in place for people with special needs -- not enough, but it's a beginning -- for housing, job training and placement and social and athletic opportunities. From the unaffiliated to the Orthodox, Gateways and our other agencies transcend our differences by uniting us in a single holy purpose: reaching all of our children with the blessings of Jewish learning and life.

Our community demonstrates what a committed federation, foundations and other funders can do when we partner with direct service agencies to challenge the status quo for Jewish education for children with special needs in a broad range of educational settings. Click here to read We are at an Important Moment in Special Needs Advocacy from eJewish Philanthropy.

Now Gateways, already Boston's central address for special needs Jewish education, is broadening and deepening its reach into the world of congregational and community Hebrew schools and Jewish pre-schools. This expands on the hundreds already served in its Sunday school, 10 area day schools, bar/bat mitzvah program and teen youth group. All of which means an even bigger impact on the vibrant Jewish future G-d promised Abraham so long ago. Just as exciting, Gateways is beginning to share its innovative model with other Jewish communities across North America.

Anyone who contributes even small sums is a funder and the best way we can invest our resources is in high-impact organizations delivering long-lasting, transformative change for our people.  When we begin to respect, accept and educate children with special needs, it reminds us of what we stand for and we become the people our ancient tradition commands us to be.

"I felt sort of like a celebrity," Hannah said of her special day. "All the encouragement I got at Gateways helped me know I could do it. My whole family was there and my grandmother gave me money for my college fund. I felt so proud and a little more grown-up than before."

As we all look harder for the best ways to leverage our limited personal, institutional and community resources in ways destined to impact continuity, making sure our Jewish future includes Hannah and Binny and Justin too will make it - and all of us - that much stronger.

Jay Ruderman is President of the Boston-and-Israel-based Ruderman Family Foundation.