{"id":13187,"date":"2010-08-20T20:44:45","date_gmt":"2010-08-20T20:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/production.ou.org\/life\/other\/making_your_synagogue_more_inclusive_welcoming_the_disabled\/"},"modified":"2015-09-24T07:49:45","modified_gmt":"2015-09-24T12:49:45","slug":"making_your_synagogue_more_inclusive_welcoming_the_disabled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/community\/making_your_synagogue_more_inclusive_welcoming_the_disabled\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Your Synagogue More Inclusive: Welcoming the Disabled"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Create<\/b> a \u201cbuddy system\u201d in which volunteers help a special needs child follow along in the siddur during davening and in the Chumash during the Torah reading.<\/p>\n<p><b>Organize<\/b> a \u201cSpecial Needs Shabbaton\u201d where a scholar-in-residence is invited to your shul to educate and enlighten congregants about the special needs population.<\/p>\n<p><b>Approach<\/b> a shul member who has a child with special needs and say: \u201cAlthough my family and I don\u2019t know your child and are unfamiliar with special needs, we would love to have him participate in shul with us. What can you tell me about him to help us get him more involved?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>Follow <\/b>the rabbi\u2019s lead: The rabbi is key to the success of any important synagogue endeavor. By personally approaching and welcoming individuals with special needs and their families, he is modeling how to act.<\/p>\n<p><b>Encourage<\/b> participation: Individuals with developmental disabilities enjoy doing concrete tasks. In shul, assign regular jobs for them ranging from collecting and shelving siddurim to setting up for a kiddush.<\/p>\n<p><b>Read <\/b>\u201cWhat Do You Say After You Say Hello?,\u201d a pamphlet published by Yachad\/National Jewish Council for Disabilities that describes how to interact with children and adults with disabilities and illustrates how much we have in common once we get to know one another.<\/p>\n<p><b>Contact <\/b>Yachad\/NJCD (www.njcd.org) for help or with any questions. Call 212.613.8229 or e-mail njcd@ou.org.<\/p>\n<p><i>Dr. Jeffrey Lichtman is national director of Yachad\/NJCD.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Create a \u201cbuddy system\u201d in which volunteers help a special needs child follow along in the siddur during davening and in the Chumash during the Torah reading. Organize a \u201cSpecial Needs Shabbaton\u201d where a scholar-in-residence is invited to your shul to educate and enlighten congregants about the special needs population. Approach a shul member who<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":332,"featured_media":47469,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Make Your Synagogue More Inclusive: Welcoming the Disabled<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ideas for how to make those who are disabled feel more included in your synagogue by Dr. Jeffrey Lichtman, national director of Yachad\/NJCD\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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