The Boston and Israel-based Ruderman Family Foundation will host a
first-of-its-kind conference in New York next month aimed at tackling the
complex issues faced by Jews with disabilities and special needs both in the
Diaspora and in Israel,
The Jerusalem Post has learned.
Organized in
cooperation with the Jewish Funders Network (JFN), Jewish Federations of North
America (JFNA) and Boston’s Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP), the one-day
event on October 20th entitled ADVANCE, will be a “unique opportunity to learn
about what needs to be done in the field and raise awareness to the stigmas and
exclusion of thousands of Jews with disabilities,” Jay Ruderman, president of
his family’s multimillion dollar charitable fund, told the
Post last
week.
The main aim of the conference, he said, is to “gather major
funders from Israel and the US together in order to learn best practices and
start to form a network to talk about what the Jewish disability field
needs.
“Funding generally happens solo with people doing their own thing,
choosing their favorite NGO and not knowing what is happening with other
funders,” continued Ruderman, who lives in Israel but shuttles back and forth to
the US.
“My main goal is to establish a network of interested people to
meet periodically and learn how to help each other work together in this field,”
added Ruderman, whose foundation has been instrumental in pushing for the
inclusion of children with disabilities in the Jewish community in Boston and
creating adult disability programs in partnership with the Israeli
government.
“I think the future of philanthropy will be for large donors
to check their egos in at the door and sit down and learn for the cause
together.” As well as the network he hopes to create, Ruderman also said that
another aim of the forthcoming gathering is to push for greater inclusion of
people with disabilities within the organized Jewish communities and in Israel
in general.
Referring specifically to Diaspora Jewry he said “One of the
overriding issues among Diaspora communities is continuity and this is spoken
about as vital to survival of Jewish people but this means that you have to also
include those with special needs and disability.
“From the statistics I
have seen, people with disabilities and special needs make up roughly 15 percent
to 20% of Jewish population, and if they are turned away by the community from
Jewish schools, community centers and synagogues, that means the organized
Jewish community is turning away 20% of its Jews,” pointed out
Ruderman.
“Communities cannot ignore the issue of special needs because
it’s expensive or complex, they have to pay attention to it,” he
added.
Ruderman estimated that more than 100 people who either contribute
financially or work in the field of special needs and disabilities had already
signed up for the conference.
In addition to participants and speakers,
the event was developed by a committee that includes some of the world’s top
Jewish philanthropists and representatives of various foundations.