While the top junior wheelchair singles and doubles tennis players in the world battle it out on court in the US Open Junior Wheelchair Championships in New York, a very attentive man sits in a wheelchair nearby with a large black toolbox on his lap. Jacob Sharff, the wheelchair mechanic and owner of How I Roll Sports: Adaptive Sports Equipment for Adaptive Athletes waits to be summoned by walkie talkie to courts where wheelchair matches are taking place. When he is called, the clock begins ticking. “I have 15 minutes to make a repair or the player has to default.”
Sharff proudly reports that he can fix a flat tire in 4 minutes. “That would give me 11 minutes if something else happens.” Sharff humbly reports, “My biggest worry is that I won’t be able to make the repair.”
This has happened in past US Opens—when the top men and women players in two divisions—wheelchairs and quads—were also in town for the competition. This year, and every four years when the Paralympics take place, the US Open wheelchairs tournament takes a year off–though the prize money for those who would have participated is shared to help cover costs of travel and lodging.
Scharff laments an incident last year in the adult competition when a man in the quads division’s backrest post “cracked in half.” He reports sadly, “I couldn’t fix it—there were no parts.”
Sharff playfully reports, “I know how a firefighter must feel—we are either a hero or that guy who is always on edge, waiting!”
Sharff, a resident of West Palm Beach, Florida, didn’t set out to become a mechanic at the US Open and other pro and college wheelchair tennis events. When he became paralyzed and a wheelchair user after a car accident in 1999 at age 16, the now 42-year-old Sharff, who competes in paratriathlons around the world representing Team USA, discovered that the only source of sports equipment was medical supply companies. “You had to get your chair in the same place that sold catheters and hospital beds!” He began thinking, “How cool would it be if adaptive sports equipment could be sold in its own place?!” Sharff, who already owned the internet domain name howiroll.com—where he was blogging and sharing photos for what he describes as the “newly injured,” left his 9 to 5 job as a production coordinator at a tea company to start his own company in 2013. He reports, “20 to 25% of our business is international—I have sold to the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand!”
Several years ago, Sharff was approached to work at several university wheelchair tennis events and other USTA (United States Tennis Association) events. The USTA reports that it is “dedicated to providing top-flight programming and developmental opportunities to wheelchair athletes of all ages and backgrounds“ and invest in tournaments and player development.
Sharff can’t wait to be back in New York next year!
Howard Blas will be participating in a panel discussion Dec 14th in Fair Lawn, NJ. The discussion, “Children Under the Radar: Strategies for Noticing and Maximizing Strengths and Abilities” will become part of the Orthodox Conundrum podcast
Maddy Katz, 27, packs food for low-income residents at Pantry Packers in Israel. Submitted photo
In an effort to encourage people with disabilities to go on Birthright trips to Israel, residents across the United States traveled with Camp Ramah to volunteer, sightsee and engage in Jewish traditions in the country.
Maddy Katz, a 27-year-old Columbus resident, took part in one of these trips from Sept. 16 to Sept. 24.
Some of the highlights of the trip for Katz were watching and trying wheelchair paralympic basketball, picking olives on a farm, packing food for low-income people, making tzitzit for soldiers, seeing friends and family, watching sunsets, celebrating Shabbat and trying new foods, she told the Columbus Jewish News.
“I have ADD/ADHD,” she said in an email. “So, visuals are very helpful and we had a lot of people who were like that on this trip. We had one person who was missing a limb and a couple people with food allergies – also me. It was a lot of (fun) learning about everyone and everyone’s special talents.”
Howard Blas, senior adviser at the National Ramah Tikvah Network, organized the trip with Birthright Israel.
PHOTOS: Columbus resident reflects on Camp Ramah, Birthright Israel trip
Maddy Katz, a Columbus resident, does a double thumbs-up outside of the Harmony Hotel Jerusalem.Emily, left, Ben, Maddy Katz and Rachel – all friends from camp – at the Anu Museum in Tel AvivMaddy Katz, a congregant of Congregation Tifereth Israel in Columbus, holds up a zeet zeet she made for soldiersMaddy Katz wearing her grandfather’s talliet and tafflin at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.Maddy Katz wears a sweatshirt reading, “always your neighbor” to represent the food bank, Neighborhood Services, Inc., that she volunteers for, while in Israel.A sign in Hostages Square that reads, “TIKVAH,” in Tel Aviv.
“A lot of people started getting the idea that volunteering in Israel was a nice way to pitch in and show support and help out,” Blas, a New Haven, Conn., resident, told the CJN. “I got the idea that maybe people with disabilities would also have something to contribute.”
Blas said he approached Birthright since he had organized trips for people with disabilities for the organization before, and they were “very supportive” and said “let’s do it.”
The group unexpectedly had to relocate to Jerusalem on the last night of the trip due to safety concerns, but organizers tried to minimize unpredictable occurrences, Blas, a congregant of The Westville Synagogue in Westville, Conn., said. Traveling with people with disabilities comes at a higher cost than a typical trip to Israel.
“Our population needs more support and we need staff,” he said. “We need to fly with them. We need to have extra activities and hotels will be better, meals will be better. So, (Birthright) basically picked up the cost of all those accommodations for our group.”
Katz said this trip was geared towards everyone’s individual needs at a “much slower pace” and more her speed.
“We’re flexible,” Blas said. “Even though it’s very structured, if we see that people are really tired and we’ve overestimated how much we can get done in a day, we can reevaluate. We were very impressed with the group’s flexibility.”
It was “extraordinary” to see the realization in the participants that they were able to do everything their families had done on other Birthright trips, Blas said.
Planning for trips with neurodivergent participants means more structure, Blas said. Free time is “not usually the best” for these trips, so off-time was filled with activities and excursions.
Katz, who volunteers “a lot” with Neighborhood Services Inc., a food bank in Columbus, said the participants prayed “the Camp Ramah ways” with tunes from camp, and saw Jewish sites such as Hostage Square, Old Jerusalem, food markets and more.
Hoping more Jewish leaders will recognize the importance of these specialized trips, people with disabilities need to be considered as the same priority as neurotypical people and people without disabilities for Birthright trips, Blas said.
The next trip akin to this with Birthright will be in December for individuals with autism spectrum disorder.
Katz, a congregant of Congregation Tifereth Israel in Columbus, previously went to Israel on a Birthright trip with Blas in December 2017. She wanted to go again because Blas was “very organized” and a “great leader,” and wanted to be with people like her, she said.
“The first trip was much more fast-paced and moving around a lot,” Katz, who works part-time at the Grandview Yard Giant Eagle in Columbus, said. “This trip was one – a different city for the last night for safety, not planned – hotel and it was much more volunteering, which is what I love.”
Volunteers on a disability inclusion trip sponsored by Birthright Israel, September 2024. Photo by Howard Blas.
(Oct. 8, 2024 / JNS) Eight days in Israel leading the first-ever Ramah Tikvah Birthright Israel Onward disabilities service trip provided insight into how a group of adults ages 21 to 41—all with intellectual and developmental disabilities (most on the autism spectrum)—are capable of connecting deeply with the Jewish homeland and its people, and of making important contributions through their volunteer efforts.
The delegation, all current participants or alumni of Ramah Tikvah disability inclusion programs, have spent many summers at Ramah camps, where they have forged ties with Israelis from their mishlachot (Israeli delegations), learned Israeli songs and dances, and grown to appreciate the importance of the Jewish state in their lives.
When the war with Hamas in Gaza broke last October following the Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel, participants in Ramah Tikvah programs began seeing community and family members—and friends from their respective camp communities—travel to Israel on service trips. They began to wonder if they might have a similar opportunity to contribute during Israel’s time of extreme need.
Perhaps Birthright Israel Onward would offer a solution?
Taglit Birthright Israel offers a dozen “classic” trips with necessary supports and accommodations for participants with mobility challenges, inflammatory bowel disorders and other medical issues, as well as an American Sign Language program, a trip for those in 12-step recovery programs and more. In addition, the Birthright Israel Onward program facilitates internships, fellowships, academic study and volunteer opportunities in Israel.
When I pitched the idea of a volunteer trip for people with disabilities, Onward Israel CEO Ilan Wagner immediately gave the green light. This group would need accommodations not usually provided to typical Birthright Israel Onward participants, including staff accompanying the group on the flight and 24/7 throughout the trip; three meals daily; hotel rather than group apartment accommodations; and additional structured activities once their morning of volunteering was over.
Last month, even as the war in the Gaza Strip and the hostage situation continued and with an escalation of war looming between Hezbollah in the north, 12 participants and four staff members boarded flights or took cars or trains from St. Louis, Detroit, Columbus, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Berkeley, Calgary, New Jersey and New Haven for flights to Israel. We arrived at a hotel in Tel Aviv ate dinner, got some rest and hit the ground running the next day.
Volunteers pack boxes on a disability inclusion trip sponsored by Birthright Israel, September 2024. Photo by Howard Blas.
We recited the Shehecheyanu prayer in honor of this pioneering trip and had morning services at the Nahum Gutman Mosaic Fountain in Tel Aviv. We then headed out—Bingo cards in hand—in search of various famous Tel Aviv landmarks on the Independence Trail. After lunch, we visited the Israel ParaSport Center in Ramat Gan. Our guide, Caroline, who was born paralyzed, is the No. 6 wheelchair table-tennis player in the world and shared what sports means to her. We also had a chance to watch Israel’s national wheelchair basketball team engage in a tough practice, and after speaking with team members, got to try out the specially designed chairs.
Then, it was off to a small Chabad shul in Tel Aviv to do our part for the Tzitzit for Tzahal project—an initiative to prepare 200,000 pairs of ritual army-green fringes for soldiers.
The next day saw us at Pitchon Lev: Breaking the Cycle of Poverty in Rishon Letzion, where we assembled 180 large boxes and filled each with diapers and four packs of wipes. Following our busy and satisfying morning of volunteering, we had lunch—pizza and grill were both exciting options for the hungry volunteers—before setting off for a special tour of the ANU Museum of the Jewish People on the campus of Tel Aviv University. After dinner, we ended our day with a rhythmic movement activity.
On Friday, we made a trip to Jerusalem so the few first-time visitors to Israel could visit the city. Everyone enjoyed shopping on Ben-Yehuda Street, riding EZRaider electric motorized vehicles, and touring the Old City and the Western Wall before heading back to Tel Aviv in time for prayers, Shabbat dinner and an Oneg Shabbat, complete with an UNO card-game marathon.
Shabbat started with morning prayers at the beach, followed by swimming in the Mediterranean, a walk, lunch and visits by Israeli friends and family members. We ended with a beautiful Havdalah service that reminded participants of the many similar ones at their respective camps.
On Sunday, we set off for the first of two days of olive picking at Harvest Helpers Leket Israel in Rishon Letzion. We learned that our olives would be made into olive oil for Israelis in need. Our participants once again felt a connection between their volunteer work and people receiving direct benefits.
Our afternoon visit to Hostage Square in Tel Aviv was quite emotional. We walked through a makeshift tunnel, looked at the empty Shabbat table and chairs (now under a sukkah) in tribute to the hostages, viewed art installations and purchased “Bring Them Home Now” shirts, dog tags and ribbons.
On Monday, in the middle of our breakfast, the staff learned that out of an abundance of caution as the situation in the north was heating up, we were being instructed by the Situation Monitoring Room to leave the hotel in under an hour and relocate to Jerusalem after our morning of olive-picking. Participants remained calm, adjusting to an abrupt change of plans (not usually easy for people with autism) and quickly packing up. Our scheduled culinary tour in Tel Aviv turned into a similar tour in Jerusalem’s Machane Yehuda open-air market, a walk through the adjoining Nachlaot neighborhood and a stop for some ice-cream.
Our last full day in Israel began at Pantry Packers, where we worked in four-person teams to pack peas and other dried goods for Israel’s needy. After putting on aprons and hairnets, two team members placed separate labels on bags, one operated the machine that dispensed the grains into bags, and one used the sealing machine. Our day—and rewarding week in Israel—began winding down with pizza and a swim party at a brand-new pool at a country club in Har Homa.
Volunteers outside a warehouse on a disability inclusion trip sponsored by Birthright Israel, September 2024. Photo by Howard Blas.
Back at the hotel, participants shared highlights of the trip. Annie thanked her “lovely roommate.” She added that “the trip was a good experience for me. I’m going to start crying.” Maddy, who noted that she volunteers thousands of hours per year, felt that the Israel ParaSport visit “got me thinking of physical disabilities in ways I never have.” Jesse felt a true sense of belonging he said he never felt at home. On Birthright, he said, “I feel like you guys were all my family.”
Our tour guide, Rotem, encouraged the group to go home and serve as ambassadors, sharing their experiences. The participants were unified in asking one question: “When can we come back and do this again?”
My hope is that the Jewish community will continue to create meaningful opportunities—in the United States, Canada and Israel—for adults who have both disabilities and amazing strengths, so as to be fully included and feel a sense of belonging.
Howard Blas is a social worker and special-education teacher by training. He teaches Jewish studies and bar/bat mitzvah to students with a range of disabilities, leads disability trips to Israel and writes regularly for many Jewish publications, including JNS.org.
