Everyone gets nervous sometimes speaking in front of a group, and for a young boy with severe learning disabilities and social anxiety, it can feel all but impossible. But on a recent Shabbat morning at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale (HIR), his hand kept flying into the air when the teacher asked about the weekly Torah portion.

Together with other children facing similar challenges, he was attending a program that helped prepare him to participate more on Shabbat with his peers — and now that program is being expanded in a new direction thanks to a Synagogue Inclusion Ignition Grant from UJA-Federation of New York. In the spirit of Jewish Disabilities Awareness Month (JDAM), which falls in February, UJA-Federation offered this grant to ignite new ideas to make synagogues more inclusive of people with special needs.

“When you have inclusion, you’re not just bringing in people with disabilities, but parents, siblings, grandparents,” says Richard Langer, HIR’s executive director. “Each person we’re bringing in through an inclusion program brings in an entire extended network that further strengthens our community.”

While the previous program helped children with learning disabilities and or without a Hebrew background learn the material from the Shabbat programs ahead of time, the new program at HIR, called Jewish Inclusion Through the Arts, will teach Jewish and Shabbat-related content to children with disabilities and their neurotypical peers using music, art, and theater.

In the musical component of the class, children will learn songs that the congregation sings on Shabbat. It will “give a voice, both literal and figurative, to all members to learn songs and be able to express themselves,” says Menachem Menchel, HIR’s director of youth education and programming.

A Heartbreaking Phenomenon

Travis Epes, who is the chair of UJA-Federation’s autism task force that helped make the grant decision, stresses the importance of encouraging congregations to be more accessible and inclusive.

“For many families of kids with disabilities, the inability to participate in a robust way in Jewish life and culture, particularly in the context of synagogue life, is truly a heartbreaking phenomenon,” Epes says.

While HIR won the grant award, Young Israel of Hewlett received an Honorable Mention for their proposal to train synagogue leaders from diverse denominations across the Five Towns to recreate their successful inclusion program. Epes lauded all the congregations who applied for grants as well as many others who are already working on making their communities more open and welcoming.

“We would like to recognize everybody because they’re really taking steps in their own congregations to be more inclusive,” he says. “Our goal is to promote awareness, to find new solutions to a challenging problem, and to make life easier and better for Jewish families with developmentally disabled children in the family.”

Synagogues or communities that are interested in creating or improving their inclusion programming should consult the resources on our Jewish Disabilities Awareness Month page.