Disability Rights
Status
According to the National Organization on Disabilities, more than 54 million Americans have disabilities. That means that 1 in every 5 Americans has some form of disability, effecting not only the disabled but their families and friends.In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed, and this legislation remains at the center of the disability rights debate today.Recent Supreme Court rulings have limited the protections offered by the ADA, however, and the battle for equal opportunity continues.As Americans and as members of the Jewish community, we must continue our support for disability rights, by educating our communities, supporting disability rights legislation and demanding enforcement of existing legislation.We must also work to ensure our synagogues and communities are inclusive to those who live with disabilities.
Position of the Reform Jewish Movement
Reform Movement Policy
The Union for Reform Judaism, the CCAR and the CSA have each passed several resolutions on the issue of disabilities. Most recently, the CSA passed a resolution in 1996 entitled "The Right to Public Education for Individuals With Disabilities," resolving to:
- Support the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA);
- Support discipline provisions and adequate funding for students, teachers and schools; and
- Work in conjunction with others to promote the educational rights of disabled children.
Other resolutions passed by the Union, CCAR and CSA include:
CCAR
Union of Reform Judaism
- Disabled Persons
Adopted by the URJ 56th General Assembly, December 1981, Boston, Massachusetts - The Disabled
Adopted by the URJ Board of Trustees, June 1978, New York
Lehiyot
In 1989, the URJ created a project entitled Lehiyot("to be"), detailing how to make synagogues accessible to those with disabilities. It provides congregations with materials on how to modify synagogues and services to be more sensitive to the needs of the disabled members of congregations. The four basic goals are:
- to encourage accessibility of activities to the disabled;
- to educate congregations about and sensitize them to disabilities;
- to provide education about disabilities to Hebrew schools, helping them to develop more of an awareness to those with disabilities; and
- to provide member congregations with guidelines by which they can be certified as having accepted the Lehiyotgoals.
Disability Rights and Jewish Values
Historically Jews have reached out to help facilitate the full participation of individuals with disabilities in religious and public life. Judaism teaches, "You shall not insult the deaf, or place a stumbling block before the blind," (Leviticus 19:14). The Reform Movement has taken considerable steps to ensure that Jewish learning and worship are accessible to individuals with special needs, that disability awareness is included in religious school curriculums and that the structure of synagogues accommodates those members with special needs.
