(Oct. 26, 2026 / JNS) Staff at Israel Elwyn, a nonprofit organization serving more than 5,700 people with disabilities in Israel, are working to ensure that they can participate fully and knowledgeably in Tuesday’s general election.
According to an Israeli government website, “Each citizen has a right to vote, and of course, all citizens with all types of disabilities, including wards to whom a guardian was appointed, and legally incapacitated persons are entitled to elect to the Knesset.”
Racheli Kaplan, Israel Elwyn’s director of recreation and community services for the Supported Living Program, says people are sometimes “amazed by the idea” that people with disabilities vote, asking, “How can they vote?!”
She explains that, ahead of Election Day, all 250 members of the Elwyn Supported Living Program community are invited to attend two preparatory sessions. The first introduces key concepts, including voting, government, political parties and the role of the prime minister.
The second session provides accessible information in simplified language about voting options, practical training in identifying the ballot slip for their preferred party and an opportunity to practice using a mock ballot box.
“We share who are today’s options and what are their platforms in general terms. We also share what they stand for in terms of accessibility and attitudes toward people with disabilities,” Kaplan told JNS.
Kaplan and her team believe it is important that “every group in society vote in a way that is important to them.” She adds that “if people with disabilities are not included in the process, this will be reflected in the actual government.”
A member of the Israel Elwyn community receives assistance in casting her ballot in the Knesset election on Nov. 1, 2022. Credit: Courtesy of Israel Elwyn.
Israel Elwyn’s Supported Living Services provide housing and support for adults aged 21 and older with intellectual or developmental disabilities. The apartments, located in Jerusalem and Herzliya, accommodate two to six residents each.
During the day, residents can go to work, participate in vocational training or attend adult day centers.
On Election Day, Tuesday, Oct. 27, volunteers will be available at polling stations to assist voters with disabilities, as permitted by law.
Minister Katz: “In an emergency, no citizen should be left without a response.”
Naomi Hazon, 83, in a bomb shelter in Tel Aviv on June 13, 2025. Photo by Maya Levin/AFP via Getty Images.
(Oct. 5, 2026 / JNS) The Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks in Israel and wars on many fronts since have continuously highlighted the many challenges people with disabilities face during time of war. Accessing bomb shelters can be difficult for those with mobility impairments and the inability to enter inaccessible shelters can be life threatening. With regulations signed on Sept. 23 by Defense Minister Israel Katz, this will soon change. The new regulation formalizes emergency response measures for people with disabilities. The regulations regarding equal rights for people with disabilities concerning essential and life-sustaining needs during emergencies marks the completion and implementation of a comprehensive national initiative.
The initiative was led by the Defense Ministry’s National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA), in collaboration with relevant government ministries and professional bodies. Over the course of the project, five key areas were formulated to ensure the continuity of services and responses during emergencies for people with disabilities: formalizing response measures within facilities for people with disabilities; evacuation of people with disabilities; accessibility of community health services during emergencies; a dedicated information database; and a system for locating, contacting and assisting people with disabilities as well as providing essential and often life-sustaining supplies to people who choose to remain in their homes.
Katz said, “In an emergency, no citizen should be left without a response. The regulations I have signed are designed to ensure that people with disabilities receive the assistance and essential supplies they need, even while remaining in their homes. This is our responsibility as a state and our duty toward them and their families. I commend all the partners on the completion of this important initiative. Our true test lies in implementation on the ground and ensuring the aid reaches everyone who needs it.”
Shira Reifman, CEO of Keren Or: The Jerusalem Center for Children with Visual Impairments and Multiple Disabilities, said, “We welcome and applaud the recognition that people with disabilities have special concerns and needs during national emergencies. We certainly saw this to be the case during the Iran wars when Keren Or had to relocate our school—which remained open while most of the school system shut down—to a facility with sufficient bomb shelter space. This required moving standers, walkers, hoists, mattresses and trucks full of equipment to the new site. It also required us to calm and familiarize our blind students with additional complex disabilities to a new setting and physical layout.
“In addition to critical regulation, we hope that commensurate funding has been allocated for implementation. Agencies need additional staff hours to comply with new regulations, funds to build wheelchair accessible bomb shelters, and government agencies that respond quickly and efficiently to requests for help, building permits, clarifications and permissions.”
Access Israel
Yuval Wagner, chairman of Access Israel, said that his organization has been leading the effort to ensure accessibility for people with disabilities since 1999. “Legislation regarding emergency preparedness and accessibility for people with disabilities has been in the planning stages since 2006.”
Wagner shared that Access Israel has been actively lobbying the Knesset Labor and Welfare Committee, the Commission for Equal Rights of Persons with Disabilities (a statutory body under Israel’s Justice Ministry), and the Defense Ministry. Access Israel even filed a High Court petition against the Welfare Committee and the Defense Ministry to advance this issue. “Fortunately, the regulations have finally been approved and signed by the minister of defense,” Wagner said.
The organization working on the ground—handling evacuations and addressing the needs of people with disabilities living in unfortified homes under missile attacks—was Access Israel, he said. Through its Purple Vest initiative, the organization facilitated thousands of accessible evacuations and met a wide range of unique, life-saving and survival needs for people with disabilities and the elderly during wartime.
Wagner said these regulations should have been passed long ago. “Over the past three years—since the cursed events of October 7—Israel has been at war, resulting in tens of thousands of IDF soldiers and civilians suffering physical and mental injuries. Regrettably, the legislation was passed only after the fact. Israel had not been adequately prepared beforehand,” he said.
Access Israel and its Purple Vest campaign have been working to evacuate and relocate people in Israel with disabilities as well as the elderly during war time and while under missile attacks.
Wagner added, “Congratulations and appreciation go to the Ministry of Defense, the National Emergency Management Authority and all partners for the tremendous effort that led to the finalization and approval of these regulations.
“It is now vital to implement these critically important regulations. This ensures that in the event of a future war, earthquake, fire, flood or other weather-related crisis, emergency systems for assisting people with disabilities will be ready and well-practiced in providing aid and saving lives,” he said.
Israeli teen, Dan Brand fell in three sets in the second round of the US Open juniors singles tournament, but is still alive in the doubles event. (photo credit: Sergio Llamera/ITF)
A group of Camp Ramah/Birthright participants help pack food supplies in Israel, September 2024. The trip was for adults with non-physical disabilities who volunteered in various locations around Israel. (courtesy Howard Blas)
At a farm in central Israel on Monday, a group of American volunteers spread out through the olive groves holding an informal, friendly harvesting competition. Wearing heavy gloves in the late morning heat and carrying thick plastic buckets to collect the spoils, the group moved quickly and soon assembled a sizable haul of hard, green olives.
It was not the usual group of volunteers from abroad: the 12 participants all were on the autistic spectrum or had other non-physical disabilities, in what sponsor Birthright Israel said was the-first-of-its-kind volunteer group to visit Israel during the Israel-Hamas war.
This trip was “different because we’re doing a lot more of my kind of things. I love volunteering,” said participant Maddy Katz, a young woman with glasses who proudly showed the olives she had gathered.
They almost didn’t make it to pick olives at Harvest Helpers, a farm in Rishon Lezion run by food rescue organization Leket Israel, because that morning, due to the escalating situation in Israel’s north, they learned that they would have to relocate from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem for the last few days of their visit.
Having to quickly pack their things and change the itinerary at the last minute didn’t phase Katz, who said the trip had “a lot of moving parts.” She was looking forward to going home to Columbus, Ohio, where her first priorities would be “sleep, shower and laundry,” and then updating her binder, where she keeps records of her 80,000 hours of volunteering over the last 10 years.
Group of Camp Ramah/Birthright participants and their guides in Tel Aviv, September 2024. The trip was for adults with non-physical disabilities who volunteered in various locations around Israel. (courtesy Howard Blas)
The volunteer group, due to return to the US early Wednesday, was sponsored by Conservative Judaism’s National Ramah Tikvah Network and Birthright Israel’s Onward program. All the volunteers had previously participated in Ramah camps in the US and most had already been in Israel.
According to Birthright Israel, this was the first volunteering trip for disabled adults during the conflict. Since November 2023, Birthright has brought over 7,500 volunteers on similar trips to Israel, they noted, and organized its first “accessible trip” in 2001.
In addition to agricultural work, the group’s 10-day visit included volunteer activities where they helped pack up food and supplies, but they also toured Israel’s Paralympic training facility, spent time in Tel Aviv, visited the Western Wall, and more.
Group of Camp Ramah/Birthright participants harvesting olives in Rishon Lezion, September 2024. The trip was for adults with non-physical disabilities who volunteered in various locations around Israel. (courtesy Howard Blas)
“I think that with the war going on and all that stuff, I wanted to go to give back to the community because everyone, especially up in the north, is really having a hard time dealing with the rockets and the fires,” he said.
Michael ‘GG’ Goodgold, an American volunteer harvesting olives in Rishon Lezion, on September 23, 2024. Goodgold was part of a trip for adults with non-physical disabilities who volunteered in various locations around Israel. (Gavriel Fiske/Times of Israel)
Goodgold, who stays “on top of the news from Israel no matter what time it is,” said that it actually “felt peaceful” being in Israel, despite the war, and he particularly enjoyed visiting the beach in Tel Aviv.
Annie Michaels, also from Chicago, has been to Israel “nine or 10 times,” she said. This trip had been “a very good experience” partly because it was “my really first time being alone, volunteering and doing all these activities on my own independently,” without her immediate family.
(The group was accompanied by several guides at all times and individual members were allowed to independently visit their family in Israel.)
“I’m happy to stay. I’m sad to leave,” Michaels said, but added that back home, she “feels great” to be able to share stories about her visits to Israel or about “what was happening when I’m volunteering and just giving back to the world.”
Annie Michaels, an American volunteer harvesting olives in Rishon Lezion, on September 23, 2024. Michaels was part of a trip for adults with non-physical disabilities who volunteered in various locations around Israel. (Gavriel Fiske/Times of Israel)
For Hannah Berman from New Jersey, the olive picking was a new experience. “I’ve never picked olives before. It’s a lot of work,” she said, showing her hand, which had red scrapes.
Nonetheless, “I don’t know how excited I am to go back,” she said wistfully, but she admitted that she would be “excited to see my family.”
Back home, Berman said, she was busy working on her autobiography, for which she conducts interviews with people in her life. This Israel trip won’t be included, she said, because she “has already picked the endpoint,” from before the trip.
Hannah Berman, an American volunteer harvesting olives in Rishon Lezion, on September 23, 2024. Berman was part of a trip for adults with non-physical disabilities who volunteered in various locations around Israel. (Gavriel Fiske/Times of Israel)
