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| Berman Jewish Policy Archive @ NYU Wagner | Newsletter
April 2010 | |
Dear Friends,
In a recent op-ed for The Jewish Week, Devorah Zlochower and Rabbi Dov Linzer spoke of children - like theirs - who suffer from
"invisible disabilities": Asperger syndrome, autism, learning disabilities, and other mood and behavioral disorders. They describe how
Jewish communities - from day schools to
synagogues - are largely inaccessible to them, causing them to retreat to resources
in the secular world which offer more support.
In
recognition of National Autism Awareness Month, BJPA is highlighting its resources on special needs in the
Jewish community. Our collection's earliest document that speaks directly to this is from 1916: Organizing a Big Brother League describes the Baltimore
Big Brother chapter's efforts "to cooperate with educational authorities in aiding backward
and deficient children...and retarded boys of working age."
In a different vein, the Bulletins of
the National Conference of Jewish Charities from 1914-1918 include reports on
pioneering Jewish communal work with the blind and the deaf. This work finds its counterpart in the 1990 publication,
"Accepting the Challenge: How a Jewish Community Hears and Shares the Needs of Jewish Deaf Members."
The Journal of Jewish Communal Service charts how Jewish Community Centers, social
service agencies, and religious communities have dealt with people with
special needs in the context of changing societal perceptions of these
individuals.
Publications by CAJE and JESNA show how this struggle continues in day schools. Of particular note is a report by Leora Isaacs and Caren Levine on Communal Provision of Jewish Education for Students with Special Needs. On the informal education
side, these articles describe the
pioneering work of Camp Ramah's
Tikvah Program to mainstream adolescents with developmental disabilities and to ensure that the gates
of camp remain open to all campers.
The UJA-Federation of New York
has
prioritized the issue of addressing autism and developmental disabilities in
our communities, commissioning "Autism: A Call to Further Action" and "Long Island Sounds: Findings and Recommendations for People With Developmental Disabilities."
On Thursday April 22, 2010, it will be hosting its third annual Autism symposium,
focusing on "Emerging Into Young Adulthood With Autism: Community Responses to
Urgent Needs."
Finally, the Washington
DC
office of the Jewish Federations of North America has
named "advocating on behalf of persons with disabilities and/or mental
illness" as one of its top public policy priorities of 2010.
We
hope that you will find these and our other related holdings to be of interest.
With best wishes,
Steven
Prof. Steven M. Cohen
Director, Berman Jewish Policy Archive @ NYU Wagner |
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FEATURED TOPIC:
ISRAEL-DIASPORA RELATIONS
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| In honor of Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israel Independence Day, we invite you to explore material on Israel-Diaspora relations, covering topics from public opinion to Israel experience programs, from changing conceptions of Zionism to the shifting role of Israel education in schools and synagogues.
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| FEATURED AUTHOR:
PAUL RITTERBAND
On April
3, Prof. Paul Ritterband passed away in Haifa, Israel. Prof. Ritterband was an eminent scholar of the social scientific study of Jewry. He served for many
years as Head of the Center for Jewish Studies at the CUNY Graduate
Center and on the
sociology faculty of CCNY. He received his doctorate from Columbia
University and rabbinical ordination
from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. During the 1960s he served as rabbi of the Reconstructionist Synagogue of the North Shore. His
many publications include Education, Employment and Migration, Jewish Learning in American Universities,
and Contemporary Jewish Philanthropy in America. His collaborators over the years included Barry Kosmin, Steven M. Cohen,
Rina Shapira, and Harold Wechsler. He received the 2008 Marshall Sklare Award from the Association
for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry. We invite you to check out his
writings on the Jewish family, fertility, Conservative Judaism, philanthropy,
and demography.
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LATEST ADDITIONS
To check out the latest additions to BJPA's collection, visit this link.
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BJPA is funded by the Mandell L. and Madeleine H. Berman Foundation and the Charles H. Revson Foundation. | |
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