Greetings!  
 

Rami's been coming to our INCLUDE Special Needs Family Camp for years.  Rami has autism and he's non-verbal.  So everyone was pleasantly surprised to see that he had learned to use a keyboard to communicate.  Typing one letter at a time with a stick, Rami let us know what he wanted:

"I want Torah study this year that is challenging," he wrote. "Having some respect for our intelligence is critical for us to live good lives."

At our Family Camp, Rami did participate in Torah study. He used his keyboard to tell us that it was "a good discussion of the parasha (Torah portion)." 
 

In ten days we celebrate Shavuot, and the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people.  In Jewish tradition, we experience Shavuot as if we were there at Mt. Sinai receiving the Torah ourselves.  The sense of solidarity and peoplehood - surrounded by Jews, all of us bound together by this shared experience - can be profound. "We were all there together," we say, and "we are all here together."
 

But, who is "we?"
 

Our community is filled with Jews from all over the world and of every orientation and background.  Last night as I ate borscht with Jews from Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia, we discussed the Bar Mitzvah of a boy from an interfaith family. Today, I read a demographic study of American Jews, which reports that "we're not as white as we used to be."  At least 10% of American Jews are Jews of color. We are not as homogenous as we might have thought. 
 

Maybe we never were.   "WE" Jews have been diverse since Moses married Tziporah the Midianite.  She was there at Sinai. 
 

The intervening millennia have had their challenges and our response to those challenges has often been to turn inward.  In turning inward, some of us end up feeling left out.  That's why we have Family Camp - because without it, some families have felt excluded.
 

If we are to thrive as a people, that must change.
 

As we receive the Torah at Shavuot gatherings across our community, let us be mindful that NONE of us has the right to exclude ANY OF US. I'm grateful to Rami for reminding me that our inheritance belongs to us all.  When I close my eyes next week and imagine us all there at Sinai, Rami will be standing right next to me.