An Inclusive Tu Bishvat Seder
An Inclusive Tu Bishvat Seder
By: Daniel Schwartz
A highlight of the year for the entire New England Yachad community is the Tu B’Shevat Seder with K’sharim and Shaarei Tefillah Synagogue, which was held recently in Newton, MA. The Tu B’Shevat Seder ceremony commemorates the new year for trees, which falls on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Shevat. Individuals of all ages with disabilities, their families and the broader Jewish community participated. Congregation Shaarei Tefillah and its rabbi, Benjamin Samuels, have consistently shown eagerness to take initiatives to include people with disabilities into their community. Shaarei also co-sponsored the event and was recently recognized nationally by the Hineinu Initiative as one of the most “Inclusive synagogues in the country.”
Over 130 people attended the Tu B’shevat Seder. Over forty teen ‘peer participants’ also attended the Seder to enjoy the evening alongside their Yachad friends. At Yachad we don’t have “volunteers” because everything we do is inclusive – so our cadre or middle and high school students without disabilities, who attend activities alongside the individuals with disabilities, are called peer participants.
The Seder opened with two activities: working on a community mural with artist Tova Speter and completing a make-and-take arts and crafts project. The tables of the Shaarei Tefillah social hall were adorned with art supplies, make-your-own flower pots, stencils, and ceramic tiles waiting to be decorated. As the Seder participants began to create these bright, nature and/or tree-related projects, the atmosphere was one of friendship. Around the room, people helped each other out with their art, offering Tu B’Shevat inspired ideas for each other’s art projects and socializing. Eventually, the vast majority of people in the room had their own project to take home– either a decorative tile or a flower pot– and each was specific to each participant’s taste, yet united as part of one general theme of Tu B’Shevat and renewal.
Yachad tu bishvat
Perhaps most impressively, the girls of The Binah School in Sharon, MA led an array of activities. First, these motivated students publicized their recent projects in school that were part of a Binah School unit that focused on inclusion. Then, the Binah School invited the seder participants, table by table, outside into the synagogue’s atrium to contribute to their mural. The mural created by the Binah school and Tova Speter is traveling in pieces to disabilities groups and programs from across Greater Boston in addition to Yachad and K’sharim and is set to be the first public mural on display in the town of Sharon. The mural represents values of community and sharing. Every participant who wished to contribute had an opportunity to draw his or her own design in an individual portion of the mural. This activity was a great builder of self-esteem for all, especially the artistically talented Seder participants. (Unfortunately, I do not fit into this category!)
The Tu B’Shevat Seder continued with eating fruits and nuts of all kinds- from papaya to mango, kiwi to apricots, carob to cashews. The goal was to commemorate the new year for the trees and celebrate what they bring forth.
This year’s Tu B’Shevat seder was fun, inspirational, and unifying for our communities. We hope we can reach even higher heights in Seders to come!
Daniel Schwartz is a senior at The Maimonides School in Brookline. Among his many other hobbies and interests, which include baseball, acting, and Jewish learning, he has been involved for the past three years in New England Yachad. Daniel writes, “Our local Yachad club began as a small group of Maimo students who would go together to events within the Jewish community with a handful of people with disabilities. It remained small for many years. After a few of us attended Yachad’s National Leadership Shabbaton 2 years ago, we became committed to helping transform our Yachad chapter. Our commitment to doing more programs with individuals with disabilities received a huge boost with the support of Liz Offen, an inclusion expert, hired as the Director of New England Yachad. In a short time, our chapter grew to more than 250 participants– students and adults, people with and without disabilities, within the broader Jewish community.” Contact New England Yachad at NewEnglandYachad@ou.org
New England Yachad awarded $50,000 Ruderman Family Foundation Grant to Expand Inclusive Programming Outside Greater Boston Area
December 9, 2013
By Batya Rosner
It’s Yachad’s mission to improve the life of those living with a disability in the Jewish community and to create opportunities for everyone to participate in Jewish life, according to their ability. But not everyone who would benefit from Yachad’s mission of inclusion lives right in the heart of the Jewish community. Sometimes, Yachad needs to look a little further afield.
Yachad, the National Jewish Council for Disabilities (NJCD), is the flagship agency of the Orthodox Union which provides unique social, educational and recreational programs for individuals with learning, developmental and physical disabilities. Its goal is to promote their inclusion in the life of the Jewish community.
Dedicated to turning these ideals into reality, the Ruderman Family Foundation has partnered with New England Yachad by awarding a $50,000 grant to expand inclusive programming outside the Greater Boston Metropolitan area.
The Ruderman Family Foundation, based in the United States and Israel, supports effective programs, innovative partnerships and a dynamic approach to philanthropy advocating for and advancing the inclusion of people with disabilities throughout the Jewish community.
“The mission statements of Yachad and the Ruderman Family Foundation are so intertwined, it’s a blessing that we are able to partner together to continue promoting inclusion throughout the New England region,” said Dr. Jeffrey Lichtman, international director of Yachad/NJCD. “There are hundreds of families who would be able to benefit from Yachad’s services and inclusive programming; and now, together with the Ruderman Family Foundation, we will better be able to reach and assist those individuals.”
New England Yachad was approached this Fall as a potential applicant to receive a grant by the Foundation.
“Young people with disabilities are often socially challenged and isolated,” described Liz Offen, director of New England Yachad. “When our Yachad participants were willing to drive close to an hour each way to attend a Boston program, we realized that we could have an even greater impact on their lives if we could bring our programming to them.”
She continued, “This project targets dozens of individuals and families bringing inclusive social/recreational activities to communities currently lacking these vital programs, minimizing isolation while promoting and fostering friendships.”
A Plan of Action
Each geographic area identified for the Ruderman Family Foundation grant has a unique plan of action based upon the needs of the community in order to establish sustainable services and inclusive programs where they do not currently exist. The grant will fund part-time positions for the North Shore and South Area; and a social worker at Jewish Family Services of Metrowest. These positions will allow New England Yachad to offer similar opportunities and in some cases more than what currently exists in the Greater Boston programs, Offen noted.
“I have been impressed with Yachad’s national model,” stated Sharon Shapiro, Ruderman Family Foundation trustee. “Yachad’s work embodies the core belief of our foundation that ‘including each is strengthening all.’ Liz Offen is an inclusion specialist. Many people in the community feel comfortable with her because she understands the needs of individuals of all ages with disabilities. Yachad works with children, teens and adults with and without disabilities, understanding the importance of inclusion to help create a fair and flourishing Jewish community.”
Programming for the new geographic expansions funded by the Ruderman Family Foundation have already hit the ground running with great potential: In the North Shore, New England Yachad has reached out to the local Jewish Community Center and synagogues, working to coordinate a welcoming event. An active chapter has developed at The Binah School in Sharon, where mainstream students participate in a yearlong sensitivity training and awareness for disabilities and inclusion (including a visit to the Perkins School for the Blind). They hold monthly programs at school for children in the South Area to do crafts, games, and socialize; a Chanukah party took place during the holiday.
Upcoming activities in the South Area include team building and rockwall climbing at The RockSpot in Boston on Monday, December 23 and pottery painting at Ceramics-a-la-Carte on Sunday, December 29. Additionally, three Shabbatons and a bowl-a-thon are to be scheduled. “Our annual Tu B’Shevat seder with Congregation Shaarei Tefillah in Newton on Sunday, January 19, is one of the highlights of the year,” Offen also shared. “Last year, 125 people attended.”
New England Yachad is fostering partnerships to secure partners across Massachusetts with local synagogues, social service agencies, schools and the broad Jewish community to expand awareness, increase programming, and support families of individuals with disabilities.
For further information and to get involved with New England Yachad, contact Liz Offen at NewEnglandYachad@ou.org or 646.628.7003.
OU | Enhancing Jewish Life
The Orthodox Union, known by the OU symbol, is the world’s largest kosher certification organization. Founded in 1898, the OU certifies nearly two million products and ingredients in 8,000 plants in more than 83 countries. The OU impacts the larger Jewish world through its youth and educational programs like NCSY, NCSY Alumni, JLIC (Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus), Israel Free Spirit-Birthright and others, Yachad and its disability support networks, the OU Job Board, the OU Advocacy political action arm, Synagogue and Community Services, OU Israel, the OU Press publishing division, OU.org and OUTorah.org, and Jewish Action magazine. Each and every day, countless Jewish individuals and families around the world are positively impacted by the work of the Orthodox Union.
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212.613.8318; steiners@ou.org
