Matan A. Koch oversees RespectAbility’s workforce engagement and education portfolio and its advocacy pipeline, including the organization's speakers bureau and civic engagement initiatives, and its Jewish and other faith-based programs.
He also leads RespectAbility’s California office.
Help Matan Koch win the Dov Levy Prize and be entered for a chance to win a free ticket to Israel. Learn more.
The 38-year-old, who lives in Los Angeles, is a quadriplegic, born with cerebral palsy. But that didn’t stop him from being admitted to Yale University at the age of 16, serving as his alma mater’s president of the student disability community, becoming a Senate-confirmed appointee on the National Council on Disability in the Barack Obama administration, and working as a consultant for Jewish organizations, advising Jewish professionals and students on how to be more inclusive of people with disabilities.
Considered one of the nation’s leading Jewish inclusion experts, he has developed training and materials for many Jewish organizations, including Hillel International, the Union for Reform Judaism and Combined Jewish Philanthropies.
Help Matan Koch win the Dov Levy Prize and be entered for a chance to win a free ticket to Israel. Learn more.
The son of a rabbi and a Jewish educator, he has been speaking on Jewish inclusion since early childhood and has been formally and informally retained by Jewish organizations for the last 20 years.
About The Dov Levy Prize
Fifty years ago, when Jewish children and adults with disabilities in Israel were either hidden away or left to the care of nuns in Christian facilities, Rabbi Dov Levy fought to provide them with a Jewish education, hand in hand with the most advanced treatments.
To this day, his Seeach Sod special education network is breaking ground on behalf of individuals with disabilities while fostering awareness and acceptance within society at large.
Throughout the Jewish world, great strides have been made for people with disabilities but there is still a long way to go.
Vote for the people that are truly paving the way for people with disabilities>>
This article is written in cooperation with Seeach Sod.