Disabilities

Original Article in The New York Jewish Week

At Camp Ramah, Israel is central. Dozens of Israeli shlichim (emissaries) “bring” Israel to our nine overnight camps and four day camps in North America each summer. And, for decades, campers have been participating in a variety of programs through Ramah Israel including Ramah Israel Seminar, Tichon Ramah Yerushalayim (TRY), Ramah Israel Institute, and Ramah Jerusalem Day Camp.

Campers with disabilities in our inclusive camping programs have many opportunities to form meaningful relationships each summer with the shlichim, who serve as bunk counselors and teach swimming, sports, arts and crafts, dance, and more.

Through the generosity of the UJA-Federation of New York and an incubator project of The Jewish Education Project, and with the expertise of an inclusion specialist and specially trained counselors, Ramah Seminar, a six-week Israel travel and study program, has successfully included and accommodated several participants in recent years with physical and developmental disabilities. (Read “LOTEM – Making Nature Accessible.”)

Every two years during December break, Ramah Israel Institute runs the Tikvah Ramah Israel Trip, a ten-day multi-sensory Israel experience, for participants in our various Tikvah programs across North America. Participants with developmental and intellectual disabilities travel to Israel with specially trained staff and visit sites such as Masada, the Dead Sea, and the Kotel, while also planting trees, participating in an archaeological dig, and picking fruits and vegetables for Israel’s needy. Participants also visit the homes of their Israeli mishlachat friends. (Read more: “North Americans with Disabilities Meet Israelis ‘Just Like Them,’ and It’s Profound” and “The Typical Israel Experience And A Whole Lot More.”)

This year, Ramah is offering its first-ever Tikvah Family Israel Trip.From December 20-29, 2016, parents and children will enjoy hands-on activities as we explore Israel. The trip will provide families with a child with a disability to explore Israel as a family unit. A carefully prepared itinerary and expert guide will assure that all family members experience Israel in a unique way. Highlights include playing with guide dogs for the blind, touring the Kotel Tunnels and visiting animals at the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem, floating in the Dead Sea, experiencing Tel Aviv’s vibrant day and night life, and taking in breathtaking views of the Ramon Crater in the Negev desert. If the experiences of families participating in Ramah’s family camps and retreats for families with children with disabilities are a predictor, the Israel trip will afford families the opportunity to form deep and lasting friendships.

Rabbi Mitchell Cohen, National Ramah Director, writes, “Ramah Israel has been running family trips for many years and the participants are overwhelmingly appreciative. Running similar trips for families with children with disabilities is exactly what Ramah stands for—excellence in Jewish education and inspiration, and totally inclusive.”

Families interested learning more about the Tikvah Family Israel Trip may contact Howard Blas, Director of the National Ramah Tikvah Network, at howard@campramah.org.

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Original Article in The New York Jewish Week

Eight brave young adults with disabilities from across the United States traveled to Israel over winter break as part of Ramah Israel Institute’s Tikvah Ramah Israel Trip. Most of this year’s travelers are current participants in or recent graduates of the various vocational training programs at Ramah camps. They are in transition to the world of work and, in some cases, moving from their parents’ homes to other living environments. Their itinerary included many of the sites and experiences of a “standard 10-day Israel trip” and a whole lot more.

Ramah offers a Tikvah Israel trip every two years.

This year’s trip, the fifth to date, included must-see destinations such as the Kotel and Har Herzl in Jerusalem, Independence Hall and Azrieli Tower in Tel Aviv, Har Bental on the Golan Heights and the Sea of Galilee. Like previous trips, this trip also took into consideration the unique needs of young adults with disabilities.

In planning Tikvah Israel trips, we create opportunities to help participants gain experiences navigating the world, including self-care, independent living, group dining, food preparation, shopping and more. The unique itinerary masterfully weaves tourist attractions with opportunities to socialize with Israeli friends, often in their homes, and experience Israel through all senses.

A day touring the Old City of Jerusalem, for example, was followed by the group going to various restaurants to order food and dine in small groups. For some meals, we went to (kosher!) food courts at shopping malls and made decisions about what we wanted, within our 40 shekel per person budget. Other days, we purchased an assortment of picnic ingredients and made lunch ourselves.

A trip to visit friends for dinner in their Beit Shemesh home one Thursday evening was preceded by a visit to a large supermarket, where we observed people shopping for Shabbat. We divided into committees, brainstormed foods we might serve guests at a Friday night oneg Shabbat, and went down the aisles in search of the items. We then used Israeli money and interacted with the sales clerks as wepaid.

On visits to homes of friends in Aseret and Kibbutz Alumot (overlooking the Galil), participants learned to bring a host gift, to navigate buffet lines and to have conversations around a big table. We sometimes ate outside under a grapefruit or avocado tree, and we learned that Israeli toilets have two flushers — to save water!

In Givat Zeev (Jerusalem), we serenaded our host, Avram, a longtime advisor in our vocational training program at Ramah New England, and his bride to be, Liron, with singing and dancing. (We returned to the U.S. two days before their wedding.)

While some participants took in much of what our excellent tour guide, Rabbi Ed Snitkoff, Director of Ramah Israel Seminar, shared with them through explanations, stories, songs, and visuals, others connected with Israel through many hands–on experiences. We baked pita bread on a taboon (outdoor oven) and picked hydroponic lettuce at Kibbutz Tzuba before taking a tour of their accessible nature area.

We visited and played with guide dogs in training at the Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind in Beit Oved; we picked beets as part of Leket Israel, The National Food Bank. Our hands turned purple from beet juice, we got mud on our shoes and we interacted for more than an hour with a lovely Birthright group who also came to pick beets. Some participants connected with Israel through climbing into caves at Beit Guvrin and helping excavate at the archaeological “Dig for a Day.” Others enjoyed planting a large olive tree at the Jerusalem Bird Observatory, just outside the Knesset.

A highlight for some participants was spending half a day working in the zoo and farm at Kibbutz Shluchot. Some used pitchforks to bale hay; others recycled food and vegetables from the dining room to be used as feed for the farm animals. Some of us actually had the opportunity to feed monkeys; others gathered eggs. Everyone enjoyed a relaxing pre-Shabbat visit to the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo and a make-your-own picnic lunch on the grass overlooking the ducks and baboons.

Some meals were opportunities to enjoy delicious food while also seeing the amazing talents of people with disabilities. At Jerusalem’s Shekel Café, we enjoyed lunch prepared by workers with disabilities. We had a similar experience in the café of Beit Uri, in Givat Hamoreh in Afula. Beit Uri is home to 110 Jewish and Arab children, youth and adults with intellectual disabilities.

Going to Israel during a period of tension, uncertainty and occasional random violence can be unsettling. But participants on the Tikvah Ramah Israel Trip remained upbeat as they took in the traditional Israel trip sites, met Israeli friends in their homes, worked the land and ate delicious kosher food. These eight brave Ramahniks who happen to have disabilities are proof that people with disabilities — like all people — are capable of connecting with Israel on a very deep level.

Participant Ezra Fields-Meyer sums up his experience as follows: “The Israel trip I went on was great! It was so much fun! It was the best opportunity I have had in a lifetime! I loved going to the Biblical Zoo, Cinema City, the Kotel, the museums, the kibbutz, and much more!”

Rabbi Mitchell Cohen, National Ramah Director, observes, “These trips are so wonderful, not just because of the inspiration it they provides for the participants, but also as a statement that providing inclusive options for travel to Israel is not only possible but essential.” Rabbi Ed Snitkoff notes, “After guiding and teaching in Israel since 1980, I do not recall feeling as inspired as I do now, after taking part in this trip. What an amazing experience this was, to see Israel, God, Ramah, the Jewish people, and everyday life, through the eyes of incredibly special people.”

We look forward to our next Tikvah Ramah Israel Trip in two years and to a Tikvah Ramah FAMILY Trip this December. For details, please contact Howard Blas, National Ramah Tikvah Director, at howard@campramah.org. For more information about Ramah Israel Institute’s programs for congregations, schools, and families, contact Moshe Gold, Director, atmoshe@ramah.co.il.

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by Aaron Herman

How do you you create a meaningful Israel experience for young adults with special needs? Video blogger Aaron Herman spoke with Covenant Award winner Howard Blass, Director of the Tikvah Program at Camp Ramah in New England, Tali Cohen, Director of Tikvah Vocational Services and participants about their unique Israel experience.

The Tikvah Program at Camp Ramah in New England is an eight-week overnight camping program for 60 campers with special needs that is integrated within a summer camp for 800 typically developing children. As Director, Howard manages four separate special needs programs, including a full-time overnight camp, a Vocational Training Program, a Camp Employment Program, and an Inclusion Program.

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Original Article Published On The Ruderman Family Foundation

For most tennis fans, the highlight of the 2015 U.S. Open was the anticipation and excitement around Serena Williams possibly winning the Grand Slam—all four major titles in a calendar year–for the first time since Stefi Graf accomplished this feat in 1988. For me, the highlight occurred on the last Friday of the tournament, when both women’s semifinals matches were played. A great deal of attention was focused on Serena’s shocking defeat to Roberta Vinci.

For those unable to get inside Arthur Ashe Stadium to see the Simona Halep/Flavia Pennetta semifinals match life, it was being projected on the giant screen outside of Ashe Stadium for hundreds to see. On an equal size screen, the Shingo Kunieda vs. Joachim Gerard semifinals match from Armstrong Stadium, and the Michael Jermiasz vs. Nicholas Peifer quarterfinals match from Court 17 were also being shown. Who in the world are these tennis players? They are admittedly not household names like Djokovic, Federer or Williams. They are championship wheelchair tennis players, getting the respect and honor they deserve! Kunieda, from Japan, is the #1 seed and Feifer from France is the #2 seed.

Wheelchair tennis is a serious event at the U.S. Open. Members of the media receive an official U.S. Open 2015 Wheelchair Tennis Competition Media Guide and a supplemental 20 page booklet of player biographies. The guide notes that this is the ninth year of the U.S. Open Wheelchair Competition at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, and features 20 of the sport’s elite talents. For the uninitiated, signs on the U.S. Open grounds provide some background:

“Wheelchair Tennis began in California in 1976. Since then, it has grown to be played on six of the seven continents and, currently, there are more than 170 tennis tournaments on the wheelchair professional tour. The Men’s and Women’s division athletes have disabilities in their lower extremities only and are classified by gender. Quad division athletes have disabilities in their lower and upper extremities and are classified based on disability, not gender. It is one of the only sports in which you may see men and women competing against each other on equal terms.”

My first exposure to wheelchair tennis was in 2012 when Israeli Noam Gershony defeated the world’s #2, David Wagner. Gershony, 24 at the time, humbly told me after the match, “It is always easy being the underdog – there is no expectations and less pressure.” Each wheelchair tennis player has his or her unique story. Gershony had taken a few tennis lessons, but he was never a serious player. Gershony served as an Israeli army Apache helicopter pilot; a crash during the 2006 Second Lebanon War left him paralyzed. Early in his lengthy rehab, he was asked the seemingly unusual but very forward thinking question, “What sport would you like to pursue?” He chose tennis and went on to win several singles titles in his career. Gershony and the other wheelchair players I have watched and met at the U.S. Open are living proof that participating in sports and physical activity allows participants—with or without disabilities—to feel good physically and mentally.

I applaud the tennis world for making wheelchair tennis just another part of the U.S. Open, up there with men’s and women’s singles and doubles, mixed doubles and juniors events. I was pleased to read recent articles in a major U.S. newspaper, USA Today, which showcased athletes with disabilities who have extraordinary abilities—and participate in typical sports events: “One-handed Receiver Dominates with Speed, Spunk” (9/15/15) and “Blind Player Joins Southern Cal Practice” (9/16/16). May we continue to see opportunities of all abilities to be included in sports—the payoff for everyone is great.

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