The Power of the Right Match

Friends,

Today I write to share my Letter to the Editor from last week’s New York Times, referencing the Transitions to Work program we developed here in Boston with Combined Jewish Philanthropies and Jewish Vocational Services.   I wrote it in response to a December 25^th Times column, “The Power of a Mom’s Love.”

Nothing can match the power of a mother’s love, but we can learn from Laurie Cameron’s tireless quest to find the best educational program for her son.  Just as his school needed to be the right match for his unique needs and abilities, we are learning that vocational programs need to customize their job placements based on both the exact abilities of the employee as well as the exact needs of the employer.  These latter concerns– the needs of the employer– are often neglected in the big matching game that many vocational agencies are trying to figure out how to get right.

–Jay Ruderman

“Link the Disabled to the Job,” New York Times, January 3, 2013

To the Editor:

“The Power of a Mom’s Love,” by Joe Nocera (column, Dec. 25), highlights the challenges in creating the most appropriate supports for people with disabilities, including meaningful job training and placement. Too often, job training for people with disabilities is far too rudimentary and does not take into account what a person with disabilities can bring to an organization.

Rather than providing general job training in the hopes that a vacant position will appear, the equation should be flipped and employers should tell training agencies what skills they are seeking, so that specialized training can qualify the person with a disability for the job.

That is what our foundation has tried to do, in partnership with other Jewish service organizations in Boston, in a program called Transitions to Work. The early results are showing success.

JAY RUDERMAN
Rehovot, Israel, Dec. 26, 2012

The writer is the president of the Ruderman Family Foundation. 

The U.S. Isn’t in Our Pocket

Friends,

Today I want to share with you a recent op-ed I wrote for Haaretz on the relationship between Israel and American Jewry—a topic of special interest to me and the Ruderman Family Foundation.  I believe it’s particularly critical not to take this relationship for granted as we move toward elections later this month in Israel. As in any good relationship, we would only benefit from listening more and assuming less.

–Jay

The U.S. Isn’t in Our Pocket, Haaretz, December 30, 2012

By Jay Ruderman

Over the years, we’ve grown accustomed to seeing our longtime best friend, the world’s greatest superpower, support Israel to the tune of billions of dollars every year via aid funds that are used to buy sophisticated planes and weaponry and finance important defense projects. Just recently, we discovered how critical America’s support was in developing the Iron Dome antimissile system and acquiring additional batteries, which are needed to provide a defensive envelope covering the entire State of Israel.

There are some who take this money for granted, acting as if it were given to us automatically. But that isn’t the case. American Jews are the most important players in the battle for Israel’s security. Yet their support for us isn’t as assured as it was in the past.

Let me explain to you how things really work, far from the media and the public: Members of Congress and candidates running for Congress are obliged to raise enormous sums of money in order to get elected. The people who raise this money for them have the ability to influence the candidates on issues dear to their hearts.

American Jews work together to raise substantial amounts of money for Congressional candidates whom they believe will support Israel. Pro-Israel members of Congress receive broad support from the Jewish community, and this assures Israel of support in Congress.

But the connection between American Jews and Israel has been weakening in recent years. This is one of the greatest threats facing Israel’s security. American Jewry is changing, and those who once felt a supreme commitment to the State of Israel see themselves today as less and less committed to it.

The Reform Movement is one of the most important branches of American Jewry. Last month, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, who heads the Union for Reform Judaism, warned that internal disputes in Israel over issues of religion and state are causing American Jews to view Israel as a country that doesn’t reflect their values.

This statement ought to be keeping Israeli leaders awake at night. They must devote serious efforts to strengthening these fraying ties before we reach the point of no return – before it’s too late.

The state’s leaders must learn to view the American Jew from his own perspective. They must understand what significance Israel holds for him and how he connects to it, and even more, what he doesn’t connect to. Anyone who thinks American Jews will continue to work for Israel and contribute large sums of money to it just because it is the state of the Jewish people is making a grave mistake.

Israeli Knesset members don’t understand the complexity of American Jewry, and it’s not certain that those who will enter the Knesset after the upcoming election know or understand what Israel’s situation is with American Jews. The foundation I head, working in conjunction with Brandeis University, brought two delegations of Knesset members from various parties to the United States to expand their knowledge of the American Jewish community. We were stunned to discover just how vital and necessary this was.

If Knesset members aren’t wise enough to understand the changes taking place within American Jewry and in its connection to Israel, and if they don’t learn how to strengthen this connection, we will lose one of the most important factors ensuring Israel’s security – our common future, and our unconditional mutual solidarity.

Imagine for yourselves where we would be without it, if, heaven forbid, we should ever reach such a state.

The author is president of the Ruderman Family Foundation, which works to strengthen the connection between Israel and American Jewry.

A Peacemaker in Our Midst

Friends,

Today I want to congratulate Tim Shriver for being named as an important “Peacemaker 2012” by Nicholas Burns in his recent Boston Globe op-ed.  (The Globe article can only be accessed with a subscription, so I offer you the Harvard University reprint.)

Nicholas Burns wrote about Tim Shriver:

Continuing in the tradition of his remarkable parents, he is spreading the magic of the Special Olympics to more than 4 million young people with intellectual disabilities in nearly every country of the world. From an extended family that personifies public service, he is building peace in the hearts of kids and adults alike one at a time.

We got to know Tim when he appeared as a keynoter at the Ruderman Family Foundation ADVANCE conference on disabilities in 2011.  His leadership of Special Olympics, and his tireless advocacy for people with developmental disabilities everywhere, has indeed made him an extraordinary contributor to our increasingly inclusive world.

Congratulations, Tim!

–Jay Ruderman

Just the Beginning

Friends,

Many of my Christian friends tell me they are struggling to enjoy the Christmas season this year because the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut are still so fresh in all our minds. This is one among many outcomes of this horrifying event, and I believe there will be countless more outcomes over the coming months and years.  It is too early to know exactly how this event will change U.S. society, but it will be changed– much in the way 9/11 changed us collectively, forever.

Those of us who advocate for the full inclusion of people with disabilities of all kinds are watching the situation closely to guard against any kind of backlash, and to be sure all future policy actions are based on thoughtful reliance on evidence rather than knee-jerk reactions based on fear and prejudice.

As my colleague Jo Ann Simons notes below, we are just beginning this conversation on what we have learned from Newtown and where to go from here.  I think her recent piece is worth revisiting on Christmas Eve, a time when Christians mark an important new beginning in their faith.

All of us at the Ruderman Family Foundation wish our Christian friends a Merry Christmas, hoping you can experience moments of peace and even joy during this holiday season.

–Jay Ruderman

Forced to Listen

By Jo Ann Simons, Disability Advisor to the Ruderman Family Foundation; President and CEO of the Cardinal Cushing Centers

The television at my home– and in homes throughout the world– has been tuned into the nonstop coverage of the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.  I feel it is my duty to listen to the news of the latest investigation of this horrific crime and watch the tributes to the victims. Somehow I feel like I am paying my respects, but mostly I am trying to comfort myself. I am trying to make sense of the senseless. I am trying to convince myself that my children are safe, our students and clients are safe, I am safe, and my country is safe. I am rationalizing that the likelihood of this kind of horrific crime occurring again is unlikely.

I am kidding myself. These kind of mass shootings are becoming more frequent and yet we have done nothing to reduce the availability of automatic weapons.

But this time something has happened. We have begun a discussion about mental illness, Asperger’s and autism. It has been thoughtful and meaningful. The world is learning what we already know: people with autism and Asperger’s are not prone to violence. It is a neurodevelopmental disorder, present from childhood.  People with diagnoses on what is called the “autism spectrum” demonstrate compassion and empathy. They are wonderful sons and daughters, brothers and sisters.  They live, play, learn and work successfully among us. In fact, one of the Sandy Hook children had autism and she was slaughtered with her aide and special education teacher.

We have also learned that mental illness usually develops in the late teen or early adult years, although it sometimes appears in childhood.  Societal stigmas and the gaping lack of services make it difficult to identify and even more difficult to treat. Families feel hopeless and desperate and are often forced to turn to the only remedy available: the criminal justice system.  In this system mental illness typically goes undiagnosed and almost always untreated.

A national discussion has begun and people who have never been part of it before are showing up to educate us.  Doctors Sanjay Gupta and Mehmet Oz have begun teaching us about the minds of people with mental illness and about distinguishing mental illness from autism. They and many others are calling out for a better mental health system.

Are we listening?

–Jo Ann Simons

Forced to Listen

Friends, 

Today I write with sadness as I hear more news from friends and family in the U.S. about the tragic school shooting in Connecticut.  I cannot imagine the grief engulfing the loved ones of the victims, and indeed the entire community of Newtown.  Shira and I extend our deep condolences to everyone impacted by this terrible event.

The enormous publicity about this event demands that we as disability advocates monitor the messages conveyed by the media about disabilities, and correct any that inaccurately portray people with either neurological disabilities or mental illness.  Media reports suggest the shooter in this case may have carried both diagnoses.

Below I share with you reflections on this moment from Jo Ann Simons, advisor to our foundation and frequent blogger in this space.  She also leads an educational institution and so is especially attuned to the fears we all have for the safety of our schools and our schoolchildren. 

Let us honor the victims by forcing a national conversation on mental illness that is thoughtful, well-informed, and dedicated to preventing future tragedies. 

–Jay Ruderman

 

Forced to Listen

By Jo Ann Simons, Disability Advisor to the Ruderman Family Foundation; President and CEO of the Cardinal Cushing Centers

The television at my home– and in homes throughout the world– has been tuned into the nonstop coverage of the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.  I feel it is my duty to listen to the news of the latest investigation of this horrific crime and watch the tributes to the victims. Somehow I feel like I am paying my respects, but mostly I am trying to comfort myself. I am trying to make sense of the senseless. I am trying to convince myself that my children are safe, our students and clients are safe, I am safe, and my country is safe. I am rationalizing that the likelihood of this kind of horrific crime occurring again is unlikely. 

I am kidding myself. These kind of mass shootings are becoming more frequent and yet we have done nothing to reduce the availability of automatic weapons.

But this time something has happened. We have begun a discussion about mental illness, Asperger’s and autism. It has been thoughtful and meaningful. The world is learning what we already know: people with autism and Asperger’s are not prone to violence. It is a neurodevelopmental disorder, present from childhood.  People with diagnoses on what is called the “autism spectrum” demonstrate compassion and empathy. They are wonderful sons and daughters, brothers and sisters.  They live, play, learn and work successfully among us. In fact, one of the Sandy Hook children had autism and she was slaughtered with her aide and special education teacher. 

We have also learned that mental illness usually develops in the late teen or early adult years, although it sometimes appears in childhood.  Societal stigmas and the gaping lack of services make it difficult to identify and even more difficult to treat. Families feel hopeless and desperate and are often forced to turn to the only remedy available: the criminal justice system.  In this system mental illness typically goes undiagnosed and almost always untreated. 

A national discussion has begun and people who have never been part of it before are showing up to educate us.  Doctors Sanjay Gupta and Mehmet Oz have begun teaching us about the minds of people with mental illness and about distinguishing mental illness from autism. They and many others are calling out to rebuild our mental health system.

Are we listening?

–Jo Ann Simons

Being in Two Places at Once: Our Foundation’s Challenge and Advantage

Friends:

I’m writing to share an op-ed I wrote this week for ejewishphilanthropy.com.  I have been reflecting on why — even with the logistical difficulties of running a foundation with offices thousands of miles apart — the strategic advantages to having a dual presence far outweigh the challenges.

As always, I welcome your comments.

— Jay

Being in Two Places at Once

by Jay Ruderman

There’s an old Yiddish expression that says you can’t have “ein tuchus oft da ganze velt” or, simply put, you can’t be all over the place at once.

But like many foundations today, our agenda transcends nations. We work toward the goal of full inclusion for Jews with disabilities wherever they may live and we also seek to strengthen the bond between Israel and the Jewish community in the United States.

Unlike many foundations, however, we felt we could not be fully effective at this work without a physical presence in both Israel and in the U.S. Our foundation is one of the few to have its principal decision maker live in Israel, while keeping the organization headquartered in the U.S. This unusual arrangement has given us a broader perspective from which our organization and those we serve truly benefit. It has also given us the opportunity to be a peer-to-peer resource for other funders in both the U.S. and Israel.

There are times that the increased coordination required by this arrangement is challenging. But the advantage of having feet on the ground in both places, and the additional involvement with grantee programs that it provides, cannot be measured. We believe that our twin locations provide us with a distinct perspective on philanthropy. Being in two far-away places at one time truly lets us understand the special and unique relationship between Israel and the U.S. Jewish community and how to most effectively pursue our foundation and program goals.

Looking back to Israel’s failed ad campaign in 2011 to woo expatriates to return home, we had a unique vantage point. We could both see the particular forces in Israel that led to the development of the campaign and better understand why it was so poorly received among American Jews.

More recently, during the military conflict with Hamas, we were able to provide our partners in the U.S. with a first-hand account of what it was like in Israel living beneath the thunder of the Iron Dome explosions, as Israeli anti-missile defenses collided with incoming rockets from Hamas, and also report to the public about how Israelis with disabilities were adversely impacted by a shortage of services during the crisis.

Such a perspective is helpful in an environment where major Israeli philanthropists tend not to fund programs outside of Israel. At the same time, many American foundations that fund programs in Israel do not have offices and staff here, even if they visit frequently.

The fact that I choose to live in Israel makes a statement to our board and partners that our foundation understands how Israeli civil society operates. It would be hard for our foundation to be as effective without this structure, in the same way that it would be hard for a newspaper to report on a community if it did not have a presence there.

Similarly, our Ruderman Fellows program, which brings Members of the Knesset to the U.S. so that they can learn more about the Jewish community in the U.S., benefits from our presence in both places. By being located in Israel we are able to directly recruit Members of the Knesset for the program and our operation in the U.S. is able to design the right experience for the participants as well as handle the thousands of details that make these trips a success.

The power of a dual or multi-location operation for foundations should not be underestimated today. In a world where information, influence, and contacts defy boundaries, the strategic advantage of being in two places at once often translates into the greater fulfillment of goals and the coalescing of mission.

Jay Ruderman is President of the Ruderman Family Foundation.  For more on this topic, please follow Zeh Lezeh, the Ruderman Family Foundation’s blog.

Double Challenge: Disabilities in Time of War

Friends,

I want to share with you this snapshot of the recent military conflict in Israel vis a vis people with disabilities.  It was sent to me and my wife Shira by Avital Sandler-Loeff, the Director of Israel Unlimited (a project of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, our foundation, and the government of Israel).

–Jay Ruderman

Dear Jay and Shira,

I am writing to describe to you some of the activities undertaken on the ground by Israel Unlimited during the recent conflict with Hamas.

Toward the end of the conflict we learned that a 45-year-old woman who used a wheelchair (and had two daughters with schizophrenia) had been sleeping on the floor in the corridor for a week because she was afraid she would not be able to get out of bed on time during the sirens at night. She called our Center for Independent Living (CIL) in Beer Sheeva. Our volunteers from the CIL arranged a room for her and her daughters in Kibbutz Hagoshrim in the upper Galilee.  Soon she was able to get a good night’s sleep in a real bed.

Over the course of the conflict those of us from Israel Unlimited– with the help of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA)– distributed 125 portable toilet kits, 300 first aid kits, and provided direct service to hundreds of people with disabilities in Beer Sheeva.  We worked with the emergency coordinator there and fifteen volunteers from Ben Gurion University. We were able to move almost 200 people with mental illness to more peaceful accommodations outside of the conflict region of Negev. Our coordinators in the affected communities in the Negev and the whole accessibility community worked around the clock. We checked people’s needs constantly and reacted very quickly.

Let us hope that the fire cease will continue to hold.

Avital

The Nalaga’at Center is coming to New York City!

By Guest Blogger Talia Winokur, the Nalaga’at Center

This January, New York City audiences will have the chance to experience a unique social and artistic enterprise – the Nalaga’at Center. The Center — based in the Israeli port of Jaffa — is a meeting place for people who are deaf, blind, deaf-blind, sighted and hearing.

The Nalaga’at Center is also home to the Nalaga’at Theater, the only theater in the world with actors who are deaf-blind. The 22 ensemble actors mount two productions: “Not by Bread Alone,” the theater’s highly acclaimed show which has been running for over four years, and “Luna Park,” the new production now in trial runs.

Both shows open a window into the special inner world of people who are both deaf and blind, living in a darkness and stillness that is unimaginable to most.

 Now “Not by Bread Alone” is set to be performed at the Skirball Center in Manhattan from January 16 through February 3. The show, a magical journey that spans various stories, dreams and locations, has been performed in Israel, South Korea and London — where it has received rave reviews. One critic called it  “a test of theater itself, the way good work can communicate across the boundaries of darkness and silence.”  (Lyn Gardner, The Guardian)

The Nalaga’at Center is also home to two extraordinary culinary venues: Kapish Café, where all waiters are deaf and communicate with the guests in sign language, teaching them a different form of communication; and the BlackOut, where the guests dine in absolute darkness and the waiters, who are all blind, serve as their guides in the unknown territory of no-vision. Replicas of both Kapish Café and the BlackOut restaurant will also be built at the Skirball Center, serving the public before and after the show.

All of us at the Nalaga’at Center invite you to join us for these unique and powerful experiences.  For more information, click here.  

What Keeps Us Up at Night: Abuse of Those With Disabilities

Friends,

In response to a shocking news report this week, the Jerusalem Post just published my op-ed calling for a hard look at the perils of institutionalization of people with disabilities and an immediate plan to join the growing global movement toward deinstitutionalization.

Here is the link to the op-ed, or you can simply scroll down for the full text. As always, I invite your response in the comment boxes provided.

— Jay Ruderman

Managing Israel’s Psychiatric Hospitals

By JAY RUDERMAN

Until Israel takes its place alongside other progressive countries and commits to a national policy of community-based living for everyone, we should all have a hard time sleeping.  Along with Israelis across our nation, I was stunned and deeply disturbed by the news that last week law enforcement raided a psychiatric hospital in Petah Tikva and detained for questioning 75 staff members as part of a year-long investigation that uncovered widespread sexual and physical abuse at the facility.

Two days after the raid, the hospital – which had a patient population of about 150 – was shut down, and patients were transferred to other facilities throughout our country.

This is not the first case of abuse at an institution. Sadly, there have been many. As unsettling as these reports are, the investigation also showed that there were others who did not directly participate in the abuse, but knew it was happening, and did not speak up.

So much about the institutional environment and the way it operates – with its impersonal procedures, its creation of dependence on the part of those it serves, its separation from society, and its dearth of community – enables and supports a culture where abuse can be practiced with impunity.

In Israel we need to pick up the pace and dedicate far more emotion, focus and resources to creating more options for care in the community. It is in this model and paradigm in which individuals are afforded the best opportunities for growth and independence.

More than 40 years ago the United States faced its own Neve Ya’akov scandal – one that resulted when the young investigative reporter Geraldo Rivera exposed physical and sexual abuse at the Willowbrook State School, a New York state-run residential facility located in New York City.

The 28-minute video documentary – Willowbrook: The Last Great Disgrace – led to massive policy reform and, ultimately, government funding policies that promoted and supported community-based services for people with disabilities.

In my native Massachusetts in 1972, a lawsuit was filed in federal court by parents of children with developmental disabilities living in state “schools.” Judge Joseph L. Tauro made an unannounced visit to the Belchertown State School and found appalling conditions.

Under Judge Tauro’s supervision, which lasted for many years, these institutions were cleaned up and ultimately closed.

Massachusetts has one remaining institution that serves a very small number of adults with developmental disabilities, and it is expected to close very soon. It does still have state-run psychiatric hospitals.

A more recent federal lawsuit in the US, called the Olmstead case, has led to a massive shift to community care across the US. Individuals who had lived in facilities for decades have now been given the proper support for community living and for the first time are enjoying their independence in the community.

The arguments about why we must keep institutions open ring hollow. Some people insist there are “difficult cases” that require institutionalization. But the fact is that countries around the world – with the US leading in this area – are closing institutions and more and more are caring in the community for those with even the most significant disabilities.

Indeed, in the US, there are 13 states, plus the District of Columbia, which have eliminated all public institutions for people with developmental disabilities.

I am not suggesting that transitioning away from institutional care will eliminate all abuse. But it is harder to commit such acts, and harder to hide them, when people leave home every day to work, participate in day habilitation, or to go to school in the community.

It’s harder to commit and hide abuse when people with disabilities are treated by doctors and therapists with offices in the community. It’s harder to commit and hide abuse when local police and safety officials protect people with disabilities along with all other members of their community.

The media reports that Dalia, the mother of a 24-year-old man who was a patient at Neve Ya’akov, told investigating authorities “we complained to the administrator… we live in fear that tonight he will be hit or they will inject him. We don’t sleep.”

We trust that the authorities will conduct a thorough investigation of what occurred at the hospital, will uncover the truth, will identify the guilty, and will make sure justice is done.

But until Israel takes its place alongside other progressive countries and commits to a national policy of community-based living for everyone, we should – like Dalia, the mother of the patient at Neve Ya’akov – all have a hard time sleeping.

The writer is President of the Ruderman Family Foundation.

We Have Come so Far …. Ann Coulter Notwithstanding

By Jo Ann Simons, Ruderman Family Foundation Disabilities Advisor and CEO, Cardinal Cushing Centers

Whenever I see an old Seinfeld episode where Jerry is using one of the first portable phones, it reminds me of how many changes I have seen in my adult life. Those bulky phones now seem primitive. In reality, it wasn’t too long ago when they looked pretty impressive. Now we are walking around with phones the size of a deck of cards that also double as computers.

These thoughts also remind me of the positive changes I have seen in the disability world. We can argue the decision to hire an able-bodied actor to portray the Glee character who uses a wheelchair.  But we have to celebrate the producers’ use of Lauren Potter, an actor with Down syndrome, to portray Becky, one of the hit show’s cheerleaders.  And it was the decision to hire a 50- year-old actor with Down syndrome to portray Sue Sylvester’s older sister that I celebrated most.  Her character died in the second season, but the storyline was realistic. The life expectancy of persons with Down is now close to 60 years old but only a few decades ago it was 20.

Having depicted both a teen and an older adult with disabilities, Glee is bringing another generation of actors into the storyline. Last season ended with Sue revealing her pregnancy, and this season we have learned that baby Robin—named for the actress who played Sue’s sister—also has Down syndrome.  While we all wait to see exactly how this will be played out, I took a moment to celebrate how disability is finally being seen as just a part of humanity.

My moment of celebration was cut short when I read about commentator Ann Coulter’s recent description of President Obama as a “retard.” Despite an outcry from people with disabilities and others, she said she was not sorry for her use of the “R” word.

Coulter defended this with an irrational logic: she claimed the word is synonymous with the word “loser.”  But that is the whole point…  The high school kid who yelled “here comes the retard” as I drove my son to school was calling him a “loser.”  That is exactly how that kid wanted my son to feel.

So I can’t fully enjoy the progress we have made with Glee, because there are still those like Ann Coulter who just don’t get that the world has changed.

— Jo Ann Simons