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Jewish communal work is in Avromie Adler’s DNA. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother worked the Sunday morning shift at Cleveland\u2019s chevrah kadisha (society of Jewish people who prepare the deceased for burial) for years, and my father would take the shirt off his back for anyone who needed help in our community,\u201d recalls Adler. \u201cWatching my parents do these things with little fanfare made a deep impression on me.\u201d <\/p>\n
While Adler knew he\u2019d engage in klal work, he didn\u2019t know what shape it would take. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I moved to New York in my early 20s, I worked with different populations, including seniors and children in the Jewish foster care system,\u201d he noted. \u201cBut the bulk of my career has been working with individuals with disabilities and their families.\u201d <\/p>\n
Adler worked at Mishkon, a Jewish social service agency based in Brooklyn, for 17 years before taking the reins as international director of Yachad in 2018. Yachad is a global organization that addresses the needs of Jewish individuals with disabilities and helps enhance their Jewish communal participation and connection to Judaism. <\/p>\n
Though Adler was very well-versed in the world of disability care and administration, he doesn\u2019t shy away from calling his role at Yachad a challenge. <\/p>\n
\u201cI came from a heavily regulated and government funded world, where the majority of services offered were residential,\u201d Adler explained. \u201cYachad runs all kinds of services and programs on an international level.\u201d <\/p>\n
He continued, \u201cIt presented a new challenge for me that pushed me out of my comfort zone and afforded me greater creativity. At Yachad, I can also impact not only those with disabilities and their families, but also volunteers.\u201d <\/p>\n
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Adler is referring to the hundreds of volunteers Yachad recruits from 8th grade, high school, college and beyond, who hold a variety of roles running programming and working as counselors with special-needs children, teens and adults. <\/p>\n
\u201cWatching volunteers grow up and grow as Jews being involved with chesed, and becoming leaders of our next generation, is deeply fulfilling,\u201d said Adler. <\/p>\n
Adler notes the significant number of senior staff members — involved with Yachad for decades \u2013 who started as high school volunteers. \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful thing that they grew up here in Yachad and forged lasting careers in this space,\u201d he said. \u201cYachad has the best staff in the world.\u201d <\/p>\n
Aside from his pride in his team, Adler is particularly proud of REACH, a first-of-its-kind database of resources and referrals to help match families of those with disabilities to specific services; it also offers chizuk (emotional support). <\/p>\n
\u201cIn ten months of operation, we\u2019ve received close to 1,000 calls already and have given out 850 referrals,\u201d noted Adler, who helped bring the idea for REACH to life. \u201cI\u2019m not on the ground as much as other Yachad staff, so it can take a stretch of time for me to see the difference we\u2019re making in the community. When I do, it\u2019s very rewarding.\u201d <\/p>\n
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A top priority of Adler\u2019s is to broaden Yachad\u2019s tent under which more diverse Jewish volunteers can be recruited to work with the special-needs population. <\/p>\n
\u201cHistorically, Yachad\u2019s reputation is that we are for the traditional Modern Orthodox community, and that\u2019s great,\u201d he says, \u201cbut we have the ability to be an organization that can support the entire Jewish community, from Satmar to secular.\u201d <\/p>\n
Adler points to Ivdu schools and summer camp programs that are single gender, and Yachad\u2019s ability to recruit Orthodox Jewish teens from all schools to be volunteers in those kinds of environments. <\/p>\n
\u201cAvromie\u2019s vision for Yachad is to help as many people as we can,\u201d reported Chani Herrmann, Yachad\u2019s Associate Director. \u201cHis leadership over the past few years has been encouraging growth and engagement of a diverse group of Jews in our community who can benefit from the unique programs and services that Yachad has to offer.\u201d <\/p>\n
In the meantime, Adler remains proud of the strides made to embrace all people of all abilities in communal life. <\/p>\n
\u201cYachad has been a huge part of fostering the integration of people with disabilities into Orthodox Jewish societal life,\u201d says Adler. \u201cI use the word integration and not inclusion, because integration implies a more natural synthesis where people are not seen as different and need a special dispensation to be included. It should be an obvious, natural course of action.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jewish communal work is in Avromie Adler’s DNA. \u201cMy mother worked the Sunday morning shift at Cleveland\u2019s chevrah kadisha (society of Jewish people who prepare the deceased for burial) for years, and my father would take the shirt off his back for anyone who needed help in our community,\u201d recalls Adler. \u201cWatching my parents do<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":63517,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meet-the-ou"],"yoast_head":"\n