A unique gathering happened this morning at the Western Wall. During Women of the Wall’s usual Rosh Chodesh prayer service in the women’s section of the Kotel, we were fortunate to be supported by some very special visitors. Veterans from the IDF’s famed Paratrooper Battalion 66, the men who liberated the Western Wall in 1967, were with our supporters in the men’s section. These men are living legends and among Israel’s modern heroes.

It was only after the prayer service was over and the paratroopers had left that the police detained ten women, including myself, for committing the crime of wearing a tallit at the Western Wall. This group included two Conservative rabbis who were supposed to meet with Natan Sharansky today to discuss the Kotel issue, one Reform rabbinical student who is 8 months pregnant, two congregants from the Reform congregation in Kiryat Tivon, and several other women. As of this writing we have all been released without restrictions.

The veterans who joined us today are now in their 70s, but their days of fighting for a Jew’s right to pray at the Western Wall have not ended. When I asked one of them why they came to support us he told me that they liberated the Wall for the Jewish people, but it is not really liberated. He said that since the Western Wall Heritage Fund governs the Wall it does not represent all Jews. He told me that they came because they want to help liberate the Wall again.

These veterans of the 1967 Six Day War represent an Israel that is sane, idealistic, and courageous. They served when they were asked to serve, and when the job was done they did everything they could to build Israel into a modern and prosperous state. Their role in Israel’s history is why the authorities at the Wall waited until they left to detain us. They knew that desecrating Judaism’s holiest site in front of the men who risked their lives to liberate the Kotel for all Jews would bring on the wrath of the entire country.

Our opponents understand that they are on the wrong side of history and that their monopoly will soon come to an end. We are on the verge of winning this battle. Israelis have become accustomed to accepting the religious dictates from the ultra-Orthodox Rabbinate. The best way to break out of this cycle of learned helplessness is to achieve a great victory. Once Israelis see that it is possible to change the status quo, they will demand pluralism in other areas; they will want freedom of choice in marriage and divorce; they will demand that gender segregation in the public sphere be completely done away with; they will no longer accept religious coercion from the Rabbinate.

The Western Wall was the crown jewel of the victory in 1967, and the Wall will once again be the crown jewel when it becomes the site where the battle for religious pluralism is won.

Image courtesy of Haaretz.com.

There is no escaping the challenging fact that there are more Jews outside the walls of our synagogues than inside. Social scientists such as Robert Putnam and Mark Chaves explain this as being part of a larger phenomenon in North America, where the most rapidly growing religious group is unaffiliated—the “nones.” While middle-aged and older individuals continue to embrace organized religion, exponentially increasing numbers of young people reject it.

Too often I hear Jewish leaders describing those who have no religious affiliation as people “who don’t know and don’t care.” I disagree. The 2012 Pew Forum on Religion survey, “‘Nones’ on the Rise,” disproves this notion, finding that many of these “nones” believe in God, seek spirituality, and pray regularly. They just do not relate to the world of organized religion. Seventy percent of “nones” reported that religious institutions are too focused on money and power, and reflect worldviews alien to their own.

That’s precisely why a major thrust of the new URJ is to “reach beyond the walls” of synagogues to engage those who have yet to join us inside of our congregations. Doing so effectively means discarding limiting assumptions such as, “they don’t know and they don’t care.”

In our new URJ Communities of Practice, dozens of URJ congregations are experimenting with a variety of compelling ways to engage young adults and young families, who will learn from each other and from our of URJ Faculty of thought leaders and expert practitioners.

Over the past 40 years, while the ranks of the religiously unaffiliated have been on the rise, the Reform Movement has been the fastest growing theologically liberal religious tradition in America. We have become the largest stream in North American Jewish life. This is due in no small measure to our openness to the full tapestry of Jews—gay Jews and straight Jews, intermarried Jews and in-married Jews, ritual Jews and cultural Jews.

The hallmarks of Reform Judaism—dynamism, openness, creativity—should make our Movement extraordinarily attractive to Jews worldwide who mistakenly view all organized religion as insular and out of touch.

I hope you will embrace the challenge of reaching beyond our synagogue walls to engage all those who are seeking a meaningful Jewish life. Let’s give them the opportunity to experience the beauty and power of our Reform Jewish community.

Originally published in Reform Judaism magazine

“[F]or many American Jews, there is no substitute for the penetrating power of a brilliant sermon, or the comfort offered by a rabbi who knew the dying person before she became ill. There is no one else to mold and lead a religious community, to carry on and interpret our great tradition of scholarship, or to stand as a moral lighthouse in this foggy time. No one else to represent ourselves to ourselves, and ourselves to other people.

Which is why defining and sustaining the role of the modern rabbi is one of the most vital challenges before the American Jewish community today.”

These words appear in The Jewish Daily Forward’s recent editorial, “The 21st-Century Rabbi.” Recognizing the power of rabbis to make or break the synagogue experience – and the Jewish experience – for today’s Jews, the Forward is seeking your stories of the rabbis who have had a positive impact on your life. Nominated rabbis must be working in the United States or Canada or, if abroad, on behalf of the military, but they can be working in any rabbinic capacity, be it synagogue, school, summer camp, or elsewhere. Some of these stories will become part of the Forward‘s ongoing series about the state of the modern-day rabbinate and its impact on North American Jewry.

The nominating period will close on February 28th, so what are you waiting for? Make sure your favorite rabbi makes it into the mix! Nominate your rabbi for “America’s Most Inspiring Rabbis” now.

British Jews have just selected a new chief rabbi. Keith Kahn-Harris argues that the post is no longer needed — and explains why it doesn’t exist on this side of the pond.

by Ed Burger and Jan Marion

We’re less than one year away from the 72nd Union for Reform Judaism Biennial General Assembly, December 11-15, 2013. We hope you’re planning to join us in San Diego this December!

The URJ Biennial is a unique experience that brings together Reform Jews and others from across North America for five days of learning, worship, entertainment, and conversation about the most pressing issues currently affecting the American Jewish community. Our team of lay leaders and professionals are working hard to put together an exciting and enriching program, and now, we want to invite you to be part of the planning process and to help us create a new and better Biennial experience.

Learning sessions, the core of the Biennial, provide an opportunity for attendees to learn from clergy, URJ staff and lay leaders, and other professionals. More than 100 learning sessions will be offered, representing a wide array of topic areas. In 2013, we will be increasing the number of “speed learning” sessions (shortened sessions) throughout the Biennial to enhance the learning experience.

More than 100 sessions are offered at Biennial, covering an extensive range of topics including:

• Educational and skill building sessions concerning congregational life
• Dialogue about issues more generally involving the American Jewish community
• Opportunities for text study and interpretation with clergy and scholars
• Conversations highlighting topics important to our community from the larger perspective – led by Reform Movement leaders and from outside organizations and presenters

We need your help to create learning sessions that better respond to the interests and needs of our Movement. To accomplish this creative goal, we are once again soliciting submissions for learning sessions. For more information, including the submission form, please see our Call for Learning Session Proposals. Working together to develop outstanding sessions, we will expand our wealth of programming ideas and offer more innovative, interactive, and educational learning sessions. We also recognize that some of our most creative and forward thinking programming ideas are developed in our congregations and we want to highlight these successful practices.

If you have an idea for a learning session and/or would like to be a presenter at the 2013 URJ Biennial, please submit your proposal now. The deadline for proposals is March 15, 2013. If you have questions, please email learningsessions@urj.org or call the Biennial Hotline at 212-650-4271.

Ed Burger is the 2013 Biennial Chair from Congregation B’nai Israel in Bridgeport, CT. Jan Marion is the 2013 Biennial Vice-Chair from Temple B’nai Israel in Oklahoma City, OK.

For over a decade the Union for Reform Judaism has advised its synagogues to break ties with Boy Scouts of America, to not sponsor troops or allow them to use their facilities. This week it looked like all of that might change, but synagogues wishing to return to the BSA will have to wait at least a few more months.

The leadership of the Boy Scouts of America, who only last summer reaffirmed the organization’s nationwide ban on gay scouts and scout leaders, met this week to discuss changing that policy. Some in the organization argued for a new policy that would allow individual troops to decide whether to allow gay members; others said this did not go far enough and called for a national non-discrimination policy. However after the three-day meeting the BSA announced that it would postpone their decision until May.

In response to BSA’s decision to continue it’s discriminatory ban at least until May, Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center, sent an open letter to BSA President Wayne Perry. “There was widespread excitement in our movement across North America when we learned that you were reconsidering your policy,” Rabbi Saperstein wrote, “yet disappointment at the announcement to postpone the decision.”

Rabbi Saperstein decried the persistent prejudice against the LGBT community that this ban represents, demanding that, “The cause of equality and justice is an urgent one. Justice delayed is justice denied.”

Joining Rabbi Saperstein in his disappointment were the organization Scouts for Equality who has headed the charge against the BSA’s discriminatory policy, and the Jewish Committee on Scouting who presented a statement in favor of repealing the ban at this week’s meeting.

A full text of Rabbi Saperstein’s letter can be seen here.

For over a decade the Union for Reform Judaism has advised its synagogues to break ties with Boy Scouts of America, to not sponsor troops or allow them to use their facilities. This week it looked like all of that might change, but synagogues wishing to return to the BSA will have to wait at least a few more months.

The leadership of the Boy Scouts of America, who only last summer reaffirmed the organization’s nationwide ban on gay scouts and scout leaders, met this week to discuss changing that policy. Some in the organization argued for a new policy that would allow individual troops to decide whether to allow gay members; others said this did not go far enough and called for a national non-discrimination policy. However after the three-day meeting the BSA announced that it would postpone their decision until May.

In response to BSA’s decision to continue it’s discriminatory ban at least until May, Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center, sent an open letter to BSA President Wayne Perry. “There was widespread excitement in our movement across North America when we learned that you were reconsidering your policy,” Rabbi Saperstein wrote, “yet disappointment at the announcement to postpone the decision.”

Rabbi Saperstein decried the persistent prejudice against the LGBT community that this ban represents, demanding that, “The cause of equality and justice is an urgent one. Justice delayed is justice denied.”

Joining Rabbi Saperstein in his disappointment were the organization Scouts for Equality who has headed the charge against the BSA’s discriminatory policy, and the Jewish Committee on Scouting who presented a statement in favor of repealing the ban at this week’s meeting.

A full text of Rabbi Saperstein’s letter can be seen here.

by Rabbi Benjamin J. Zeidman

The last time you were in another synagogue, how did you feel? What was it like? Did you know anyone else there? Did anyone say hello? Did you feel that it was a place you belonged, a home away from home?

In working with conversion students, I often surprise them when I explain that one need not be a member to attend Shabbat services. All they have to do is walk in. No one will turn them away, and in fact it is likely that they will be greeted with warmth. The anxieties of those who might wish to join in Jewish worship are telling. How much they reveal about our own anxieties!

If you are reading this in our monthly bulletin, you likely have the joy of being able to say that you are one of the pillars of our community; you support Temple Emanu-El as a member. But do we realize the fears of those who might wish to join us in the synagogue, Jewish or not? Do we realize that the couple we do not recognize or the individual standing to the side on Friday evening in the lobby during the Shabbat blessings wants to be welcomed but is too overwhelmed to initiate conversation? Do we approach unfamiliar people with a sense that a new friend, even a potential new “pillar,” is there in front of us but too nervous to see how lovely a place and how warm Emanu-El really is? How easy the potential for a missed opportunity…

After attending his or her first, second and even third Shabbat service, one thinking about choosing Judaism often remarks: “I was completely out of place. I had no clue what was happening in the service. I didn’t know what was going to happen next.” With assurance I can tell them: Don’t worry! It is the same for many of us! Each synagogue does things a little differently. Each Shabbat service at the same synagogue might include some slight alteration. And how many of the people sitting in the service truly have a sense of the liturgy? With some study, all of us can learn more about Jewish prayer, but rabbis and Jewish scholars rarely fill the synagogue pews.

The connection between those interested in Judaism, and those who are Jewish but are not yet in the habit of attending the Temple, is clear. When someone chooses to join us in prayer, for a program, to volunteer and for any other occasion, we would do well to consider what the “stranger,” the “newcomer,” must be feeling.

Lest we think that someone we do not recognize will just keep coming back again until they get to know the place on their own (in which case, after their first visit, we’ll likely never see them again), we are reminded by the midrash of the importance of someone who chooses to engage in Jewish life:

Dearer to God is the stranger who has come of their own accord than all the crowds of Israelites who stood before Mount Sinai. For had the Israelites not witnessed the thunder, lighting, quaking mountains and sounding trumpets, they may not have accepted the Torah. But the stranger, who saw not one of those things, came and offered themselves to the Holy One, and took the yoke of Heaven upon themselves Can anyone be dearer to God than this person? (Tanhuma Buber, Lech L’cha, 6)

As opposed to the Middle Ages, there no longer exist communal repercussions for those who choose not to engage in Jewish life. So, a stranger may be someone who converts to Judaism or someone who simply chooses to come to synagogue to actively practice the Judaism into which he or she is born. Either way, we would do well to remember that the person who actively makes a choice to engage with the Jewish community is special and should feel welcomed in a community full of others who have made the same choice.

To welcome the “stranger,” someone you do not recognize, is to do more than simply make him or her feel comfortable and to help him or her know how lovely our community really is. It is to engage with the Divine. It is to make our community and our lives as Jews holy. As Abraham welcomed the strangers that turned out to be angels, we never know who we might be welcoming. May we each be a part of helping everyone to know how special our community truly is.

Rabbi Benjamin J. Zeidman is the assistant rabbi of Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York.

Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera will be named Man of the Year by the New York Board of Rabbis and will be given a guided tour of Israel.

EDUCATION: It’s the dawn of a new era for bored and irritated Hebrew school students. Interactive online lessons can make the language and culture come alive.

FORWARD EDITORIAL: Defining the modern rabbi is a vital challenge for the American Jewish community. But first, we want to know about the rabbis who inspire us. And we need your help.

Meru University opens a new year with exciting new spiritual courses, both live and on- demand, that inspire, illumine and empower students to merge with their own Divine Presence.

(PRWeb January 09, 2013)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013meruuniversity/01spiritualcourses/prweb10301134.htm

by Jennifer B. Perlick

Two years ago I realized, “Wow, my daughter’s bat mitzvah is coming up!” Of course, I wanted it to be special. I wanted it to be really meaningful for her – and for me and the whole family – but I wasn’t super-inspired by the b’nai mitzvah ceremonies I was attending at my synagogue. Don’t get me wrong, I love my congregation, Har HaShem in Boulder, CO. It offers the largest community of Jewish families in Boulder, its religious school is extremely well-run, and the rabbi and cantor are both young and hip. But the b’nai mitzvah program was, in my opinion, missing the mark.

I have lived in Boulder for more than 20 years, and I have attended programs at various congregations and Jewish organizations, including High Holy Days retreats for adults, communal prayer services, and several “alternative” b’nai mitzvah programs. I’ve been seeing some creative and inspiring things, and I’ve seen kids deeply moved by a special connection to the process, the clergy, to prayer, and Torah. But I wasn’t seeing it so much at my synagogue.

I started voicing my concerns with our cantor and rabbi. I didn’t know how they’d react, but I felt like I had to do something. At first, I was focused primarily on my own daughter’s bat-mitzvah. I wanted some latitude to create it how I wanted to see it. But as I worked with them, I realized I was not the only one interested in change. Some other families had similar requests and concerns, and the rabbi, cantor, and school director were already envisioning new approaches to b’nai mitzvah and to our religious school curriculum in general.

In a former life I was a middle school teacher, so the b’nai mitzvah age-group is near and dear to my heart. I am particularly aware that this is the time to get them interested and open to the wonder of spirituality and Jewish connection. Otherwise, how are we to capture this special window? In my teaching career, I saw extraordinary results with programs that employ multi-age, expeditionary, and project-based learning. These modalities give kids a stake in their education, making it real and meaningful to them.

I see this direction now taking shape at Har HaShem, and I am excited. We are developing a pilot curriculum that employs all of these modalities, including in-depth study of Torah with the rabbi and individualized options for students to present and express their d’var Torah. My daughter is currently part of this pilot. She is now five weeks away from her bat mitzvah date, and I must admit I am pretty inspired – but the real test is her continued involvement. It shouldn’t stop at b’nai mitzvah. It should be the launching pad for a more connected Jewish adult life.

Of course, Har HaShem also feels this way, and so this summer, our congregation applied for the URJ’s B’nai Mitzvah Revolution (BMR) program. When we were accepted, I raced to volunteer. In November, I traveled with Har HaShem to the BMR national conference in Maryland and met with delegates from 14 Reform congregations all pursuing their own paths in re-evaluating what b’nai mitzvah and Jewish youth education means. Each temple is developing its own approach, but we all know we are part of something big – and it’s giving me a sense of meaning and purpose. A few months ago, I was voicing concerns; now I am helping my congregation explore major change. This is the first time I have been involved as a lay leader in my congregation, and I am thrilled to be a part of a much larger institutional and national dialogue.

Being part of BMR is exciting to me on so many levels. My participation has allowed me to be more deeply connected to our staff, cantor, rabbi, and school director.  I have made new friends with other lay leaders on the project, and I have felt intellectually stimulated and nourished by the opportunity to contribute from an area of my expertise which has gone untapped for many years. Given that my children are the first round of ‘subjects’ in our new experiment, I am extremely invested in the process and outcome. I look forward to working with our congregation’s students, staff, and other families to create something both long-standing and totally awesome!

Jennifer B. Perlick is a member of Congregation Har HaShem in Boulder, CO, and a lay participant in the B’nai Mitzvah Revolution, a joint project of the Union for Reform Judaism and Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute for Religion. Learn more about the project at bnaimitzvahrevolution.org.

by Lisa Friedman

At Temple Beth-El, we are very fortunate to have a student in our program who is blind. Braille is one of the coolest things I have ever seen (no pun intended), and Hebrew Braille is even cooler. (Note: The Jewish Braille Institute, JBI, will put all of your materials, including textbooks, into Braille for free. They rock!) Facilitating this student’s Jewish education enables me to revisit both my personal and our congregation’s commitment to inclusion over and over again… and I couldn’t appreciate it more!”

More than anything else, I have learned that simply accommodating a student’s needs is not inclusion. Don’t get me wrong: Making appropriate accommodations is an essential strategy in working with all students who have special learning needs. But there’s more to inclusion. Let me give you an example:

A class of students is going to break into chevruta (partner) groups to study a Jewish text. A written copy of the text is given to each student. The teacher decides that because this is a discussion-based activity, the text can be read aloud to the student that is blind and he/she can still fully participate.

What’s wrong with this?

Put yourself in the scenario. Are you typically the one who says (when something is read aloud), “Let me see that, I missed half of what you said”? If so, you are probably a visual learner. (For more about discovering your own learning style, visit this site) This is how Braille can function for a student that is blind; it’s her way of “seeing” the text for herself.

Having the text read aloud is a reasonable accommodation, but it is not fully inclusive.

Here is another example:

Students will be working in groups to explore leadership and community building. The activity is almost entirely visual, based on students observing one another as they engage in the task. Adding a listening role to the group with the student who is blind is a reasonable accommodation, but adding that same role to every group is inclusive.

Inclusion isn’t always easy. Sometimes it takes trial and error – and it takes both intentionality and planning. But as we learn from Rabbi Tarfon in Pirkei Avot: “It is not your responsibility to finish the work [of perfecting the world], but you are not free to desist from it either” (2:16).

Lisa Friedman is the Education Co-Director at Temple Beth-El in Hillsborough, New Jersey. This position includes overseeing an extensive Special Needs program within the Religious School with programs designed to help students successfully learn Hebrew, learn about their Jewish heritage and feel connected to their Jewish community. In addition, Lisa’s works with families, staff and clergy to ensure a smooth transition for special needs students from Religious School through the b’nei mitzvah process and beyond. 

Originally posted at Jewish Special Needs

The New York Times published an interesting story this week on late NYC Mayor Ed Koch, a Jew. Apparently the mayor’s rabbi, Arthur Schneier of Park East Synagogue (Modern Orthodox), tried to take His Honor cemetery shopping, but Koch was bound and determined to be buried in Manhattan, and so he will spend eternity in Trinity Cemetery, surrounded by Episcopalians.

Although the Times implies that Park East was where the mayor davened – when he davened – it also clearly states that he identified as a Conservative Jew. Not that he lived as one; he neither kept kosher nor was shomer Shabbos.

And, of course, the coup de grace is that Koch’s funeral was held at Temple Emanuel, with its rabbi, David Posner, officiating. Koch apparently made clear that the funeral needed to be at Emanuel, the only shul (you should pardon the expression) big enough for the expected crowd. The Times made clear that Schneier could not officiate, not because the funeral was at Emanuel (although I wonder what accommodations might have been made over that issue, both by Schneier and by Posner) but because the burial was at Trinity.

We read almost daily about the detachment of our youth and young adults from the denominations. Mayor Ed Koch, of course, was a youthful 88. There is nothing new under the sun.

In another deviation from typical Jewish practice, the gravestone was prepared in advance, lacking only the dates of birth and death, and presumably will be installed immediately after they are carved into the stone. At the time of my recent bereavement, the cemetery manager suggested that appropriate protocol was to prepare the monument in 30 days but wait for the year to dedicate it. (I think perhaps he was more concerned with cash flow than with Jewish minhag.)

At the turn of the year, as we were reading Va-y’chi, about the deaths of Jacob and Joseph, I blogged about their concern that they not be buried in Egypt, pointing out that Jacob wanted to be reunited with his wife, Leah, and the rest of the patriarchal group. Joseph’s reason is not given in the text, but clearly he was not driven the same way as Ed Koch. He could certainly have prevailed on Pharaoh to accord him the honors dead he had earned in leading Egypt. While he wouldn’t have had the words of Daniel Pearl to quote on his monument, it could certainly have read, “Here lies Joseph, son of the Israelites, Rachel and Jacob, whose wisdom and foresight sustained Egypt through famine and brought it back to prosperity. May he be remembered forever for his contributions to the Egyptian polity.”

But then we would have been less likely to encounter the Pharaoh who knew not Joseph. Ed Koch chose to be buried where he had lived and worked and made his mark. He was confident that the his Jewish constituents would remember him wherever he was buried –so he took out insurance to build a wider legend.

Like many of his contemporaries, Mayor Ed Koch was denominationally immune, theologically passive, and ethnically committed. Zichrono l’vrachah, may his name be for a blessing.

An open letter to Rabbi Miri Gold

Dear Rabbi Gold,

I’m writing you today to beg for more of your patience.  I know you and your congregation, Birkat Shalom, believed that winning an unprecedented verdict in May 2012 meant that you would receive a state salary like all male Orthodox rabbis in the Gezer region.  Our whole movement in Israel and abroad celebrated this achievement; however it is now clear to me that the celebrations were premature.

We have just learned that the state decided NOT to award you a salary for 2012 because you worked only part time as Birkat Shalom’s rabbi.  This is spectacular chutzpa.  The only reason you worked part time was that there were no financial means to pay you for a full-time position.  But I know, as everyone does, that you give much more than full-time; you give your all.  The rule that only full-time rabbis will be compensated by the state is an invention by government bureaucrats wishing to circumvent the court’s verdict.  We at IRAC are determined to fight this verdict with all the tools at our disposal. If necessary, we will return to the Supreme Court and ask them to order your salary to be paid immediately along with compensation and legal fees.

We want to alert the many new friends that we have in the Knesset and have them investigate and correct this bureaucratic “Catch-22.” We will turn to the media both here and abroad and get the liberal Jewish world to apply pressure on Israeli decision makers.  But before we do all that, I must ask you for savlanut (patience). You once pointed out to me that the word savlanut has the word sevel (suffering) in its root; you taught me that in the course of the 7 years that we were in court challenging the state to recognize you as a rabbi in Israel.  So today I turn to you; dear sister, friend, and teacher.  Please have more savlanut – “justice, justice will prevail.”

L’shalom,
Anat Hoffman

by Rabbi Robin Nafshi

Temple Beth Jacob in Concord, N.H., has a membership of about 210 families. And like all other communities both large and small, a number of our students have physical and/or cognitive disabilities. Our philosophy is to do all we can to provide maximum access for all of our members.

One of our religious school students is Jacob, whose mother has said it’s fine to use his real name here. Jacob has detachment disorder, environmental autism, language delay, and rage issues – and he has been in our religious school since kindergarten. At no time have we considered excluding him. In fact, in the 5th grade, we held him back a year so he could join a class of loving, caring students, as his original class had many students with serious behavioral issues.

Jacob is now in 7th grade. Although he is 14, he has decided he is not yet ready to become a bar mitzvah. He and I met weekly for several months (as I do with all b’nai mitzvah students) so he could learn about the process and we could design a service for him. One day, he came into my office and simply announced that he wasn’t ready. I told him I supported him in his decision and would help him anytime he felt he was ready.

My real concern with Jacob is how he will stay connected after 7th grade. For many reasons, participation in our 8th grade class is out, and after 7th grade, the only possible role at religious school on Sunday morning is as a madrich (classroom aide), something Jacob is not ready for. And so Jacob, his mom, our principals, and I will work together to create something for him after this year.

While Jacob is our most profoundly disabled student, we enroll others. One young student’s cognitive issues surfaced at the end of last year when she was unable to read English or Hebrew at her class’s service. This year, she’ll be involved in equally valuable ways that don’t require her to read, taking the lead in her class’s acting out of their d’var torah, for example. Another student has an affective disorder that is exacerbated by certain lighting, so we have changed all the light fixtures in our classrooms. Another young boy has profound behavioral issues. We have hired a recent college graduate to be with him one-on-one throughout religious school, as we have done with others before him.

Ours is not a remarkable community. We simply believe there is a place for everyone at Temple Beth Jacob. We want our kids to be proud Jews, to be learned Jews, and to read Hebrew (if that’s possible), but more importantly, we want our kids to know that they are loved for who they are, and that this congregation is a safe and secure place for them. We cannot achieve these goals if we retain barriers to their involvement – so when we discover barriers, we knock them down.

Rabbi Robin Nafshi serves Temple Beth Jacob in Concord, N.H.