Published Articles

Original Article Published On The Jerusalem Post

Yuval Wagner was an IDF pilot who became paralyzed after a helicopter crash. Now he runs the NGO Access Israel with the goal of making the Jewish state more accessible to people with disabilities.

A group of 29 adults with disabilities stood near a Cobra helicopter at Palmahim Airbase in Israel, mesmerized as Yuval Wagner recounted that fateful day in 1987 when the helicopter he was piloting abruptly crashed and left him paralyzed and his commander dead.

Wagner also explained how his new life as a paralyzed man with a desire to embrace life, travel and make his beloved country accessible for all, led to the creation of Access Israel, the Israeli NGO he founded nearly 25 years ago.

The former pilot, used to navigating Israel from the controls of a helicopter, now gets around with the help of a sophisticated electric wheelchair he operates with a joystick. He moves so quickly that it is hard to keep up with him. The community members from Chapel Haven in New Haven, Connecticut, Wagner’s guests at Palmahim, had to work hard to follow the fast-moving Wagner as he showed them the ins and outs of the base.

The group first toured the hangar housing Black Hawk helicopters and listened to mechanic “H” explain how engines are repaired and replaced. When the group later met young pilot “D,” they had a chance to board a Black Hawk and experience what it feels like for 18 people to cram into such a small space usually used to transport crew members, including pilots, mechanics and medics on rescue missions.

Wagner led the group from the Black Hawk hangar to the Cobra helicopter replica, which serves as a memorial to the events of March 18, 1987. Wagner began by giving the group a sense of what it means to be a pilot serving in the Israel Defense Forces and of the centrality of one’s aircraft.

Wagner holds the Access Israel logo. (credit: YUVAL WAGNER)

“It was my dream to fly Israel’s most advanced helicopter,” he told the group. “The time you become a pilot, you learn that you live not only with your wife or girlfriend, but with your aircraft too.”

The group gathered around Wagner in front of the helicopter as he recounted the story of the helicopter’s unexpected crash. 

“We were eight helicopters – four pairs of two. It was a beautiful day, and we took off from Palmahim on a training mission. We flew to the Dead Sea and from there made a turn north. A little before Beit She’an, the helicopter began shaking wildly, and suddenly we crashed in the fields.

“We fell from 400 meters [1,300 feet]. Lt.-Col. Zion Bar was killed immediately. He had a wife and three kids. I could not feel or see anything. There was mud in my eyes and I didn’t know if I was blind. I broke my neck and was taken by rescue helicopter to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem and was between life and death. I eventually went to a rehabilitation hospital.”

The large group, standing around Wagner on this hot day didn’t make a sound as he recounted the impact of the crash on his life. 

“This is the second that life changes for you and your family. You have options. Where do you take your life from here? I chose to make the most of the situation and become stronger, to take a second that is terrible and make a life that is better, to make the most out of our lives, to enable people with disabilities and their families to live and do. It is tough. You can’t hide it.”

Wagner then recounted the issues he faced day to day in the aftermath of becoming paralyzed. 

The sudden challenges of becoming disabled

“The first challenges are medical. Then, how do I live with myself as a disabled person? How do I live my life with the thoughts, reactions and stigmas of others?” He then began to tell the story of how and why he created Access Israel. 

“I didn’t know about accessibility,” though he acknowledged having some experience, as he spent his life living with a disabled IDF father who also used a wheelchair.

“The next challenge was how to go out of the house. I got married and had three kids and wanted to go to a hotel in the Galilee.”

Yuval begins to tell the well-known story of how Access Israel got its start.

Wagner and family prepared for their first family vacation by taking steps to ensure the accommodations were fully accessible. They were in touch with the guesthouse about elevator size, door sizes of the room and bathroom and more. They were reassured it was accessible. Wagner stops the story mid-sentence and promises to tell the whole story later that evening when the group will gather for dinner in his home.

CHAPEL HAVEN community member Jonah Sabol found Yuval’s talk at Palmahim to be the highlight of a 10-day Israel trip. 

“That was an inspiring story. I can’t imagine what he must have been feeling,” he said.

Later that evening, at a poolside dinner at Wagner’s fully accessible Hod Hasharon home, Access Israel’s CEO Michal Rimon welcomed the group and told the longer version of the story of Wagner founding Access Israel.

“Twenty four years ago, Yuval went on vacation, and the door of the bathroom was too narrow to get his wheelchair in,” Rimon explained. “He had to make a choice between disappointing his family and going home or staying. The staff told him to go get a cup of coffee and worked to make the door frame bigger. When Yuval went home, he wrote a letter to Israel’s then-president Ezer Weizman.”

Wagner explained to the president and former pilot what had happened and expressed disappointment about Israel’s lack of accessibility. 

“A day later, I got a call back from the President’s Office. They said the President read the letter and wants to speak to me,” Wagner said. “After talking, he gave me the responsibility for starting an organization that would make Israel accessible in every way possible. And he told me to come back in six months to the President’s House with a report on the status of the organization.”

Rimon, who has heard and recounted this moving story dozens of times, succinctly shared Weizman’s message to Wagner with the group. 

“He said, ‘I apologize on behalf of Israel. Do something – establish an NGO and stop kvetching. And you have a six-month time table for the launch!” Access Israel was launched on the lawns of the President’s Residence in June 1999.

Wagner returned to the army to complete his service – now focusing on coding over flying – and worked with friends and colleagues to come up with a business plan to show the president. They began with work on a website to identify accessible and non-accessible places in Israel. They have continued in three areas: awareness, consulting to organizations, and legislation.

While Access Israel’s vision has always been to create a world where people with disabilities can live their lives with respect, equality and independence in all areas of life (including work, education, culture, travel and leisure, commerce, health and transportation,) the scope of their work has expanded over the years.

They work to raise awareness among decision-makers and engage the Knesset to initiate new legislation and regulations regarding accessibility. The organization also manages projects to implement accessibility.

A Feel Accessibility 2023 family event took place May 12 to raise awareness around accessibility, disabilities, sports, and people with disabilities in general. The educational and experiential event included a flotilla of sailboats and yachts, and helicopter and aircraft flights over the beaches of Tel Aviv, Jaffa and Herzliya.

In Israel, Access Israel has hosted international conferences on inclusion and accessibility and has rolled out the Purple Vest Israel initiative, which provides a toolkit for implementing preparations to evacuate and assist individuals with disabilities in emergency situations.

This initiative has expanded beyond Israel and has been implemented effectively at the Ukraine-Poland border. Since February 2022, participants have helped rescue 4,000 people with disabilities and the elderly, while providing support to 10,000 people by providing essential equipment and medications.

Online initiatives with an international focus include webinars on topics around disabilities, access and inclusion. Their May 24 webinar on Accessible Tourism, their 13th such event, attracted more than 200 people from 80 countries.

Despite Wagner’s extremely busy schedule, he finds time to keep up his connection to the air force and flying – and to connections with his comrades. In December 2021, Wagner had the opportunity to return to a helicopter – this time as a passenger – along with Noam Gershony, a fighter pilot and Israeli wheelchair tennis star who was also paralyzed in a helicopter crash.

Each Remembrance Day, Wagner joins the family of Zion Bar, his deceased comrade, on the beach for brunch. Bar left behind his wife, Naomi, and three children – Yaeli, Assaf, and Michali, all in their 20s now. 

“He loved the beach,” Wagner said. Each year on the anniversary of Bar’s death, Wagner visits the cemetery in Tel Aviv where Bar is buried.

Wagner’s professional colleagues are impressed with his drive and dedication. James Lassner, executive director of Accessibility Accelerator, an Access Israel partner, reported, “One who has the opportunity to meet Yuval gets to see the focused and dedicated commander of Access Israel that he is. As his collaborative partner, I get to see the same and I am blessed to see deeper into his golden and very caring heart. This mission we are on with him is to make a focused effort each day better than the day before for people with disabilities and the elderly.”

Catherine Sullivan-DeCarlo, vice president of admissions and marketing at Chapel Haven Schleifer Center, Inc., who got to know Wagner on her group’s recent trip to Israel, added, “I was deeply impressed with Yuval’s story and his determination to make his country more accessible. He turned a personal tragedy into a lifetime of advocacy and it is evident throughout Israel. We saw many historic sites that are being made accessible for people across the globe. I also was impressed that Yuval is still active with the Israel Air Force. Visiting the airbase and his home and experiencing the depth of his commitment was a deeply moving part of the trip for me.”

While Wagner runs a complex and very ambitious organization, it is all pretty simple. 

Wagner noted, “I came to a moment of acknowledgment that my life story, my fortune and luck to stay alive after the accident is for a reason – to make Israel fully accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities and their families and to share knowledge and best practices to the world.” ❖

Read more

Original Article Published On The Chabad.org

Player shares what he discovered at Chabad of Coronado

When Adam Fishman heard that the 2023 World Men’s Lacrosse Championship was coming to San Diego, he saw an opportunity to bring together three of his great loves: lacrosse, Israel and Chabad.

The former Ivy League lacrosse player, member of Israel’s National Lacrosse Team and an active member of Chabad-Lubavitch of Coronado worked tirelessly to bring 180 people to Chabad for a rousing Friday-night prayer service and a beautiful Shabbat dinner that included the entire team, coaches, relatives and community members.

Fishman’s desire to share Friday night at Chabad with the team comes from his own positive experiences there. Although he attended a Jewish day school as a child, “I had never gone to Friday-night services as a kid,” he told Chabad.org. “Here, this magical thing happens.”

Fishman detailed Chabad’s role in bringing Kabbalat Shabbat (“welcoming the Shabbat”) into his life, and the life of his wife, Allie and young child, Aiden—and his desire to share it with his fellow Jewish athletes. “The rabbi used to host dinner in his home every Friday night. The crowd got so big that they began hosting dinners at the shul. For me, Shabbat dinner was my re-entry point. It got me reconnected, and I wanted to share it with the team.”

Fishman overcame logistical challenges in planning the evening. “I knew the team had 60 guys and staff. I also knew our shul’s size. But I knew that with the rabbi’s help, we would make this happen,” he said.

Rabbi Eliezer and Zeldi Fradkin, co-directors of Chabad of Coronado, a California resort city on a peninsula in San Diego Bay, say they admire Fishman’s dedication and refer to him as the shadchan (“matchmaker”)—the driving force bringing Team Israel to Chabad during the quadrennial event featuring the top men’s field lacrosse teams.

“When he heard the team was coming to San Diego, he was very focused on bringing them here,” reported the rabbi. “Adam felt strongly that part of coming here needed to be coming to Chabad of Coronado for Shabbat. He did not want them to miss out on Lecha Dodi or the rest of the davening experience. No one questioned it.”

Outdoor Shabbat dinner for 180 at Coronado's histroic Abadi Residence@The Baby Del - Photo courtesy Chabad of Coronado

Outdoor Shabbat dinner for 180 at Coronado’s histroic Abadi Residence@The Baby Del

Photo courtesy Chabad of Coronado

A Heartfelt Speech to the Team

Fradkin, who served as mesader kedushin (“officiating rabbi”) at the Fishmans’ wedding and has enjoyed watching them welcome their first child, recounts Fishman’s heartfelt address to the players at dinner. He pointed out that playing lacrosse for Israel was “one of those pivotal moments when you get to represent Israel,” and implored his fellow lacrosse players to deepen their connection to Israel and Judaism as soon as possible.

“Don’t wait as long as I did for a connection,” Fishman said. He shared that, despite attending a Jewish day school, he never understood the reasons behind many Jewish rituals but began getting answers through classes offered by Chabad.

Fishman attended the Phoenix Hebrew Academy, an Orthodox Jewish day school in north central Phoenix, Ariz., and first discovered lacrosse at the JCC in Scottsdale. He played lacrosse in high school and at Dartmouth, where he led the Ivy League in shooting percentage before graduating in 2015. Fishman went to Israel in 2017 to try out for Israel’s national lacrosse team. While he didn’t make the squad in 2018, his persistence paid off and he made the 2019 World Championship box (indoor) lacrosse team.

The Phoenix native came to Coronado with his wife during the coronavirus pandemic. It was a homecoming of sorts. Fishman spent summers of his youth in Coronado, where both sets of grandparents had vacation homes. Coronado is located on a peninsula near San Diego, and is bordered by the Pacific Ocean and the San Diego Bay. It hosts such U.S. Naval institutions as the Naval Amphibious Base, Naval Air Station North Island and Navy Lodge North Island.

Fishman, now 30, has worked for a strategy-consulting firm and various entrepreneurial ventures. He is now in the field of gratitude-based leadership development and is an active member of Chabad or Coronado.

The Israel National Lacrosse team, coaches, relatives and community members spent Friday night at Chabad - Photo courtesy Israel National Lacrosse

The Israel National Lacrosse team, coaches, relatives and community members spent Friday night at Chabad

Photo courtesy Israel National Lacrosse

Playing and Praying Together

Solomon Krevsky of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania came to San Diego with his wife, Katy, to watch their son, Max—who plays lacrosse at Yale University and is part of Team Israel—play lacrosse. Krevsky enjoyed watching the players come together at Chabad much as they had done on the playing field all week. “Seeing everyone cheering together for the boys for a week, then davening together in unity was meaningful.”

“Seeing these guys talking about the intricate details of lacrosse, and then all of a sudden walk into the Chabad House and sing “Shalom Aleichem” at the Shabbat table with their arms around each other with so much ruach and passion … This is what it is all about, says Solomon Krevsky”

While he is used to spending time with lacrosse players at Yale, Max Krevsky notes that the Team Israel experience was unique: “I got to interact with 22 other Jewish guys who were similar but different. They were interesting and awesome!”

He said he enjoyed getting to know two of his Israeli teammates, Ori and Ronen, and eating Shabbat dinner “right on the beach.” The Jewishly connected Krevsky has studied Yiddish for three semesters at Yale (“It was my grandfather’s first language”), and he and a fellow lacrosse teammate attend Chabad activities and services, where “there is always great food and energy.”

Dan Kraft, father of team member Joey Kraft and board chair of Israel Lacrosse, described the dinner as “a beautiful evening.” He appreciated that it was the first opportunity for extended family members to get together, meet and bond. Kraft passionately shared the three pillars of Israel Lacrosse: growing the game in Israel, connecting Diaspora Jews to Israel in unique ways, and competing on the international stage. He noted that this was not Team Israel’s first experience with Chabad. While they were competing in Ireland, Chabad of Dublin helped Team Israel secure kosher food at a tournament in Limerick, an Irish city 124 miles southwest of Dublin with no Jewish infrastructure.

Players, coaches and members of the Chabad community were pleased with Team Israel’s success at the 2023 World Lacrosse Championship. They won their first four games against Sweden, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and the Czech Republic. Team Israel held on for a 6-5 win against Ireland in the first round of the playoffs; its first loss came at the hands of the United States team. Israel came in an impressive seventh out of 30 teams.

There were other victories along the way: The team’s requests and prayers were answered as no games were scheduled for Shabbat, and their Friday-afternoon game ended with plenty of time to get to the Chabad House for Shabbat dinner. The rabbi and members of the Chabad community cheered on the team at several lacrosse games. One parent even noted, perhaps playfully and perhaps seriously, “If we continue winning, it can be attributed to the big ruach [“spirit”] of Friday night!”

Read more

Original article appeared in the June issue of Hemispheres magazine

Florida’s Rising Tide Car Wash Shows how a business that employs people with Autism can thrive

Andrew D’Eri’s family knew he was going to need a helping hand. As a 22-year-old with autism, he was aging out of his local school program, and the family was painfully aware of the staggering unemployment and underemployment rates of people with disabilities. Andrew’s brother, Thomas, and father, John, began exploring the idea of starting a business that could support the needs of people with autism while taking advantage of their unique skills—and, of course, turning a profit.
“We loved the idea of a car wash,” says Thomas D’Eri, “since it followed structured routines and processes.” People with autism tend to do well when they have clear rules, routines, and repetitive tasks, and, with this in mind, the D’Eris founded Rising Tide Car Wash in 2013. Ten years on, the company has expanded to three locations around South Florida, employing dozens of people on the autism spectrum and serving as a model for how workplaces can help the neurodiverse and other “barrier groups” learn skills and retain jobs.
Earlier this year, Thomas D’Eri published The Power of Potential: How a Non-Traditional Workforce Can Lead You to Run Your Business Better (HarperCollins Leadership) to share what he has learned at Rising Tide.

In the book, he describes figuring out how to recruit and assess talent. “This is an industry that chronically struggles to find entry-level talent,” he notes. “We often make incorrect assumptions about what ‘good talent’ looks like. It is not firm handshakes and smiles.”
What’s more, by endeavoring to create a workplace culture that values employee feedback and works to
meet the needs of people with autism, D’Eri says he learned how to be a better manager for all employees. “The job of a manager and anyone building an organization is to make the implicit explicit,” he explains, an insight he drew from the work of business author and executive Claire Hughes Johnson.
“This underpins most of what we do.” Rising Tide put in place multistep, often visual systems for all manner of tasks, ranging from vacuuming to removing bugs from windows to cleaning bathrooms. “We create clarity around all we do,” D’Eri says. “When employees struggle, we try to understand what we
haven’t clarified well enough.” Along the way, D’Eri discovered advantages to employing people with
autism. For example, they generally don’t hesitate to point out systemic issues.
“Neurotypical staff often aim to cover up problems,” he explains. “People with autism struggle and are honest, and they will show me what to fix.” Another big benefit for Rising Tide and companies such as John’s Crazy Socks (run by a young man with Down Syndrome and his father) and Bitty & Beau’s Coffee (a café chain that employs people with intellectual and developmental disabilities) is positive branding.
“It is a very crowded marketplace,” D’Eri notes. “Businesses like this resonate.”

Read more

Original Article On The Jerusalem Post

The effectiveness of MLB policy cutting down on lengths of games got me thinking that, just maybe, there is hope for cutting down on long synagogue services.

I turned on the radio a few nights before Shavuot, just as the New York Mets had won a nine-inning game. The announcer was praising the speed of the game – a quick two hours and 19 minutes. While this may seem relatively fast for a baseball game, it is not completely surprising or random. The trend toward faster-moving games is thanks, in large part, to a few changes implemented this season by Major League Baseball. The implementation of the pitch clock is an acknowledgment that three hours is just too long to sit for a baseball game.

Baseball games have averaged 3 hours or longer in every season since 2010. In 2021, games tended to last 3:11. The new rules have definitely helped shorten games. As of 447 games this season, the average length of a nine-inning game dropped to 2:38 per nine innings as compared to 3:03 last season. The 2:38 time is the lowest since 1984 when average games lasted 2:35.

Even 2:35 is long compared to the early 1900s when games finished in under two hours. The first time the average length of a game went beyond the two-hour mark was in 1934!

The effectiveness of MLB policy cutting down on lengths of games got me thinking that, just maybe, there is hope for cutting down on long synagogue services. Perhaps synagogues of all denominations can take a lesson from Major League Baseball. In an age of shortened attention spans, people simply don’t have the patience for regular Shabbat morning prayer services which go past the 2-hour mark.

For a while, synagogues were on a good track to keeping it short, mostly out of necessity due to the pandemic. Following a very long hiatus where there were no in-person prayer services, many synagogues resumed prayer services with extreme caution and modifications – outside or in a tent, socially distanced and with masks. And, there was a real effort to move things along quickly.

Jewish pitcher Eric Reyzelman has his sights set on a career in Major League Baseball. (credit: COURTESY/JTA)Jewish pitcher Eric Reyzelman has his sights set on a career in Major League Baseball. (credit: COURTESY/JTA)

How was this done? By eliminating non-essential parts of the service. People were asked to say the preliminary service at home and arrive in time for the “meat” of the Shabbat morning service. We were in and out – Shabbat morning took, well, just part of the morning and none of the afternoon.

ONCE SERVICES resumed back indoors, we continued to take precautions to move the service along. Who wanted to be indoors in close proximity to people for so long? One person handled all aspects of the Torah service from ark opening to lifting of the Torah. Torah honors were taken from one’s seat, therefore eliminating wait time for people coming up to the Bimah. In some synagogues, one person had all the honors! And Mi Sheberach, the prayer for the sick was eliminated.

Even on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur rabbis found halachicly acceptable ways to eliminate non-essential liturgical prayers. They also cut down on explanations, sermon length and extra honors like the numerous ark openings traditionally done before many prayers.

When the pandemic ended, there was speculation and hope that, perhaps we learned our lesson –that shorter is better. After all, who wants to spend all Saturday morning or holiday day indoors praying? Perhaps longer services were a thing of the past. In the post-pandemic area, might it be possible to both pray and take a walk with your spouse or play in the playground with the kids?

Sadly, we have slipped and returned to our old ways. One rabbi friend shared a recent conversation from Ravnet, the listserve for the Conservative Movement, about whether post-pandemic services should be kept at their new shorter lengths or fully restored to pre-COVID lengths. One rabbi – perhaps delusional – suggested, “We have so much to offer our congregants—why not make it [even] longer [than pre-pandemic]?!”

Is he serious?! It is time for synagogues to once and for all take a lesson from Major League baseball. What is the secret sauce? New rules and enforcement.

First and foremost, MLB has implemented the pitch timer. There is a 30-second timer between batters and then a shorter time limit between pitches. Once pitchers receive the ball, they must begin their motion within 15 seconds. If there is a runner on base, they have 20 seconds. If he goes over, he is charged with an automatic ball.

Batters also take responsibility for keeping games shorter. They must be in the batter’s box and be ready to go by the 8-second mark on the clock, or he is charged with an automatic strike. Batters get one timeout per plate appearance.

Even managers must take some responsibility for keeping things moving along. Managers, who are allowed to request a replay review, must do so more quickly than in the past. They have to hold up their hands immediately after the play in question to signal to the umpires that they are considering a challenge. In past years, they were given 10 seconds to initiate the review.

Once the manager alerts the umpire to a potential challenge, the umpire initiates a 15-second timer. The manager must then decide whether to challenge the call on the field before that timer reaches zero. Otherwise, any challenge request would be denied. Previously, managers had 20 seconds to decide whether to challenge.

COULD A shul timer reduce the length of prayer services?

When I shared my proposal with Theo, a baseball-loving bar mitzvah student of mine in New York City, he wisely asked, “Would there be a clock in shuls?” and “What would be the penalty for rabbis who go over?”

I thought about how this might be implemented in synagogues. Installing two clocks – one at the back of the shul for rabbis and cantors to see and one near the ark for the congregation to see are easy fixes. Perhaps the gabbai (warden) or a newly created position could be in charge of clock monitoring.

Penalties are easy to implement and enforce in baseball. What would that look like in synagogues? Perhaps a newly appointed shul “clock committee” chair can issue rabbis with a warning for a first offense. It could take the form of a yellow or red card in soccer and result in a “talking to” by the synagogue president.

Maybe he or she would be “blocked” from joining the congregational Kiddush for a second offense. The third offense for going over the two-hour mark might result in being “benched” for a Shabbat, “fined” (forced to work without pay for a Shabbat) and the filing of complaints with rabbinic governing bodies such as the CCAR (Central Conference of American Rabbis), RA (Rabbinical Assembly) or the RCA (The Rabbinical Council of America). Cantorial bodies would also be contacted as both clergy members assume responsibility for watching the clock.

Perhaps using a clock in synagogue seems punitive and just maybe some people actually enjoy sitting in pews for over two hours. As it turns out, we Jews are always watching the clock. Each Friday and Saturday, Shabbat start and end times are determined by clock times. And for those who enjoy sitting for longer services – enjoy.

We just ask that shuls post “run times” on their websites – just like movie theaters – so we can all make informed decisions about what to expect. There are hundreds of synagogues in Israel and dozens in America which are in and out in 90 minutes. It can be done!

Read more