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John and Mark X. Cronin, co-founders of John’s Crazy Socks, spoke this morning at conference held by the Ramah Camping Movement. The conference focused on ways the nationwide chain of Jewish camps can support their staff. John and Mark spoke at a session focused on Ramah’s Tikvah programs that include young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the camps through vocational training and supported employment.

John said, “I love the way Ramah supports people with differing abilities. They make a difference in so many lives.”

Howard Blas, National Ramah Tikvah Network Director, invited the Cronins to join a panel with Dave Thompson from the Nicholas Center and Spectrum Designs to share their experiences and insights into recruiting, hiring and working with people with differing abilities. The three guest speakers addressed the conference at large and then met separately with Camp leaders to discuss ways to create more jobs for people with differing abilities and to enhance their existing vocational programs. 

Dave Thompson offered that hiring people with disabilities comes down to a mindset, a willingness to see the ability of all people to contribute.   

Mark X. Cronin echoed that though in saying, “We ask that you not be blinded by a person’s limitations, instead, be awed by their possibilities.” 

Mark X. Cronin added, “We loved these conversations. It is clear that Ramah has a deep commitment to inclusion and supporting people with differing abilities. We are glad to join this panel and were impressed by the achievements of the Ramah Tikvah Network.”

At the conclusion of the event, Howard Blas told John and Mark, “Thank you for joining us, sharing your story, and offering useful, practical advice to our attendees.  You have been a hit every time I have heard you speak!    

About the Ramah Camping Movement and the Ramah Tikvah Network 

The mission of the Ramah Camping Movement is to create and sustain excellent summer camps and Israel programs that inspire commitment to Jewish life and develop the next generation of Jewish leaders. Each year, more than 11,700 campers and university-aged staff members attend their ten residential camps, five-day camps, and Israel programs. 

Since the first Ramah Tikvah program opened in 1970, the Ramah Camping Movement has continued to be a pioneer in the inclusion of Jewish campers with disabilities. Tikvah programs now operate in all Ramah camps across North America, offering the inspirational Ramah experience to Jewish children, teens, and young adults with a wide range of intellectual, developmental, or learning disabilities.

About John’s Crazy Socks

John’s Crazy Socks was inspired by John Lee Cronin, a young man with Down syndrome, and his love of colorful and fun socks—what he calls his “crazy socks.” He and his father, Mark X. Cronin, started the company as a social enterprise with a mission of Spreading Happiness™. They do this by offering socks people can love that allows an expression of one’s true self. More than half their employees have a differing ability, and their Giving Back program has raised over $475,000 for charity partners like the Special Olympics, the National Down Syndrome Society and the Autism Society of America. Most of all, they are Spreading Happiness™.

For more information about John’s Crazy Socks, visit our webpage, Facebook page, Instagram account or YouTube channel. You can also contact us at 631-760-5625 or via email at service@johnscrazysocks.com.

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Original Article Published On The eJP

By Helen Chernikoff

As a longtime administrator in the field of disability services, Avrohom Adler had gotten countless phone calls from people in the Jewish community seeking a service provider either on their own behalf, or for a family member or friend. He would do what he could to help them, but his inability to know the outcome nagged at him. Spurred by those experiences, he’s created a database, under the auspices of the Orthodox Union’s (OU) Yachad division, that aims to provide a central address for high-quality referrals, Adler told eJewishPhilanthropy.

“This has been something that I personally have been thinking about for 10 years,” said Adler, Yachad’s international director. “Any organization that provides supports for people with disabilities deals with this. You try to do your best, but there’s no way to follow up.”

Called REACH, the service will initially serve the New York region, although Yachad, which means “together,” plans to expand it to cover the United States. It will offer recommendations for government-funded programs, educational institutions, social and recreational programs, therapists, lawyers, advocates and social workers. Yachad draws on the entire Jewish community in compiling its database, in addition to non-sectarian organizations, such as JCCs, the Rebecca School, located in Manhattan, and Brooklyn’s Strivright/Auditory Oral School of New York.

“This is not a Yachad network,” Adler said of REACH. “This belongs to the community.”

REACH’s director spent a year researching the community’s offerings in order to create the database. Licensed professionals will train a team to operate the database and to work with the families, Adler said.

Founded in 1983, Yachad operates in the United States, Canada and Israel. Adler estimates that Yachad programs serve about 1,000 people annually. The OU was founded in 1898, and has over 400 congregations in its network, in addition to serving as the umbrella organization for NCSY, its youth group; OU Press; Yachad and other programs.

No one organization can serve every person or every need, Adler said — hence the database. He said the team that created the service is “most proud” of the technology, because it will help mitigate the natural human bias of the staff member answering the call.

Employees of Yachad, Adler said by way of example, might feel inclined — even unconsciously — to refer callers to a Yachad program over another. REACH’s software will generate the referrals after the staffer enters the caller’s information into the system. The initial call will take about 35 minutes, and the recommendations will be sent to the caller in an email. REACH will also follow up with surveys to evaluate the quality of the interaction, the referrals and the outcome, which will be fed back into the system, Adler said.

“It comes down to: How did everybody perform, including Yachad?” Adler said. “If people aren’t happy, and it wasn’t a good referral, we have to know that.”

The emergence of such an ecumenical project in the disabilities world does not surprise Howard Blas, director of the Conservative Movement’s Ramah Tikvah Network of summer programs for children with disabilities. “This is one of the places in the Jewish world where people really collaborate nicely. There’s a lot of crossover,” he said, mentioning that a third of the children in the Tikvah network come from Orthodox homes, and that he admires Chabad’s Friendship Circle program, which helps children with disabilities and their families establish relationships.

People with disabilities and their families will find REACH useful, especially in its ability to help callers understand and access government benefits, said Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, president of RespectAbility, a disability service and advocacy organization.

Some organizations, such as the Jewish Board, address this need for information by compiling lists of available services and providers on their websites. The lists can be challenging for their creators to keep updated and for users to sort through, said Adler, who worked at the Jewish Board for most of his career.

“All the information in the world that we need is out there, but we need aggregators and organizers to help us access it,” Blas said. “REACH is like a concierge service.”

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Original Article Published On the JNS

In a third consecutive year, JNS took home a number of annual Simon Rockower Awards earned by editors, staff members and freelance writers in the American Jewish Press Association’s 40th annual competition for excellence in Jewish journalism for work done in the year 2020—the most to date, in fact.

JNS won its first two Rockower Awards for work published in 2018. Last year, it doubled that, winning four in 2019. And this year, it earned eight.

Editor and columnist Ruthie Blum won the Louis Rapoport Award for Excellence in Commentary. Her first-place pieces included “Let us remember what the survivors are unable to forget” about aging Jews and Yom Hashoah; “Owing the ultra-Orthodox an apology” about overriding blame directed at religious Jews in Israel during the coronavirus pandemic; and “Gang rape at the Red Sea Hotel” about societal ills and how Israel reacted to a horrible crime.

The award, named for the late author and editor of The Jerusalem Post, honors the top regular opinion columnist in Jewish journalism.

Freelancer Heather Robinson won first place in writing about health care for her story, “As race for coronavirus vaccine intensifies, Americans think back to Salk.” She interviewed Peter Salk, the eldest son of Dr. Jonas Salk of polio-vaccine renown, and others as the world grappled with the coronavirus and the creation of a vaccine during 2020.

Peter Salk receives a polio vaccination from his father, Dr. Jonas Salk. Credit: March of Dimes.

JNS news editor Sean Savage earned first place in the category of Writing About Jewish Heritage and Jewish Peoplehood in Europe for his story, “Working to serve needs of Jews in Eastern Europe in age of corona.” The article covered the challenges of reaching out during the pandemic to help the elderly and others in Poland, Ukraine, Russia and other communities where Ashkenazi Jews have long resided. The judges wrote, “Interviews with the chief rabbis of Poland, Ukraine, and Hungary show that—despite being miles and miles away—they pivoted their Torah classes and daily minyan to Zoom, just like us. The excellent, fine-grain reporting that Savage does here with many details gives readers an intimate look at these communities during these difficult times.”

Regular writer Josh Hasten received first place for Excellence in Writing About Food and Wine. His story, “Diplomacy marches on its stomach: One rabbi helps cook up kosher fare for UAE delegation,” describes one of the direct perks of the Abraham Accords that Israel signed with four Arab countries in 2020.

Freelance writer Howard Blas won second place in the sports category for “The education of Deni Avdija on and off the court,” which was one of a number of stories throughout the year on the young basketball talent from Israel who plays for the NBA’s Washington Wizards.

Freelancer Faygie Holt earned first place in business writing for her story, “Jewish businesses start to feel heat as coronavirus affects product acquisition and sales,” about the early economic effects on everything from a kosher Chinese restaurant to Israel travel agents to a fashion designer on Long Island, N.Y. She also took home second place in the education category for “How to teach the lessons of the Holocaust in the school classroom.” 

Members of the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel take part in prayer on the Sigd holiday at the Armon Hanatziv Promenade overlooking Jerusalem on Nov. 16, 2017. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.

Longtime JNS contributor Deborah Fineblum got second place in a new category about interfaith and intercommunal relations for “Black (and Jewish): Braving the pitfalls, Jews of color find inner and outer peace.” The judges said, “It was a fascinating look at how committed (and very desperate) Jews of color navigate having feet in both worlds, particularly in light of this year’s heated racial debates and demonstrations.” Last year, she earned an honorable mention in the David Frank Award for Excellence in Personality Profiles” for “Meet Michael Schudrich: Rabbi to Poland’s Jews, the living and the dead” about the American-born chief rabbi of Poland.

In the 2020 Pennsylvania Press Club/National Federation of Press Women contest, JNS managing editor Carin M. Smilk received first place in the science and technology category for “New president of Technion seeks ‘soft sciences’ to meld with Israeli high-tech,” and first place in the personal essay category for one of a series of blog entries written during the initial months of the coronavirus lockdown, “Day Seven: Banking on the beer distributor.” She also got third place in personality profiles for a story on Chabad emissary Dini Freundlich of Beijing, guest speaker at the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Women Emissaries in Brooklyn, N.Y., one month before national lockdowns due to the pandemic. Her science story was also submitted to the national-level competition, where it earned an honorable mention.

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