 Yachad in New York because the Orthodox Union. Welcome to the special episode of Abel de Narnere, the one and only program that focuses on the needs, concerns, and achievements of the differently abled. I would like to say thank you. Abel de Narnere would like to say thank you to Yachad in New York and the Orthodox Union for this special episode, which is also in partnership with them. We would like to thank Yachad in New York and welcome our special guest. Her name is Rebekah Syragh, mayor. Sure, good morning. Thank you. Thank you, Erlina, as Lawrence for his Rebekah Shragh, which is the National Jewish Council for Disabilities. Okay. Can you explain a little bit? Well, it's not a little, it's a lot. Can you explain what the missions and goals of Yachad is? Enriching the lives of Jewish individuals with disabilities by enhancing their communal participation and their connection to Judaism through social and educational programs as well as support services. Okay, what types of activities does Yachad help people partake in? Our social recreational programming, local weeknight programs, Jewish holiday programs, weekend retreats, pre-pandemic educational programs. One of my favorites is we run a huge family weekend for about 900 people every year, where there's different sessions going on and programming for each family member, respectively, having their own programs to attend. We have schools, we have four schools here in New York, a counseling department, we have multiple, they have programs for adults over a month, we run either learning independence or job training. We have about 20 summer camp partnerships and a birthright trip to Israel. Okay. Just name it, name stuff. Now, since you are in research that we've done, Yachad works with the Orthodox Union. Can you explain a little bit about how the Orthodox Union helps you guys and all of that? Their team programming to really have better support for individuals with disabilities in these social recreational programs. The Orthodox Union is most known for their closure certification which is one of the biggest closure certification symbols and take a product, so you're in Vermont, so name drop my favorite, Ben & Jerry's. When you look at a Ben & Jerry's carton, it has a little OU label on that and what it means is that it is certified closure that there's somebody who's coming and making sure that all the products going into it are closure and then what it says on the package is really in there and so on. We generously received from the OU, Jerry's includes, because we birthright has a free spirit brand, a magazine publication, a research center, there's many different communal efforts you labeled. Okay, my wife wants to ask a question, go ahead. Okay, what are the different social programs you guys offer? Can you expand on the camps and that kind of thing? In terms of, okay, since you said independence and inclusiveness, do you train or teach people like how to live on their own and maybe get their own apartment and that kind of thing? Say that again? What age is it? Oh yeah, what age is YAHAT up to? What community is that? Okay, so let's get to the real important, well, of course this is real important, but as far as religious life, being with someone who is, being people who especially use ourselves, for many years, schools and other religious centers haven't been really accessible. I mean, it has been since the Americans with Disabilities Act, but how does YAHAT make religious life easier for people with special needs on your end, especially with prayer books and in certain holidays, et cetera? I know we're jumping around, I know we're jumping around, but go ahead. Yeah, yeah, we're in a whole new institution. They were hidden. Whereas you walk into any synagogue now, you see lots of people who are differently able and it's really an amazing thing, but on a big picture, how far we've come and there's a lot to celebrate. Now we used to go and we've only come to pushing in that direct communities, ran trips to Washington, DC and Albany, where our teams with and without disabilities met with local politicians, the disability legislation initiative, they're spaced more. Is that, was that part? So, sorry, was that part, was that part of the legislation or the legislation was different? So, we have regions throughout the U.S. and foreign communities and when we go in and modeling, really how much our individuals can do, whether it's them leading different parts of the prayers or keeping a sermon, you know, we're there one weekend once some of the ability is done. And I think it's, we highlight, right? We highlight meaningful employment for individuals with disabilities and we highlight our, the relationships our advisors and peers have with the individuals with disabilities and they're really trained and supported throughout the program, the com leaders and the com ambassadors of inclusion with, you know, having a close disability attitude. So, when we're talking about making our synagogues more inclusive and more accessible, I think the biggest thing that we can really do is, you know, person by person, providing opportunities for people to have exposure and to, you know, highlight the abilities and highlight where we can include. Talk about your employment program for people with disabilities within Yachad. Our region is trained vocational programs run through our self-safed program. What we blown away by is, we have something called Yachad individuals, whether it's internships or pay points, beautiful partnerships with CVS and children's place and lots of us so large and something I'm so proud of is, is our organization started a gift basket business called Yachad Gifts that employs individuals with disabilities. So, they put together, so basically they're putting together, they're working in groups and putting together the gift baskets, right? For example, what type of, because I saw the website, so if you can talk a little bit about some of the gift baskets that are put together, go ahead. Just examples, go ahead. So no, was there someone, go ahead. If someone wanted to send a Passover basket, you would send like Passover food stuff in the basket, or matzah and certain other things, correct? Okay, so let's do more promoting, especially about your new book and also I looked on the website and it was, it has Purim prayers and it has other things there for Passover and let's talk a little bit about that as well. For example, well, this is going to air after that but go ahead, it's fine. What is meant by that, I'm sorry, what is meant by conceptual translation? So like purple, different colors represent something. Yeah, remember it's Purim's release and we open to all every Monday night at 8 p.m. on a different page of the prayer book. So any, you know, opens anyone in the community to come and learn together on a weekly basis, you know, these small tidbits. Mm-hmm. How has the pandemic, now this is a big question because it's, you know, could take up a lot of time too, but how, you know, you kept on saying pre-pandemic and then pandemic. So how has the pandemic of COVID-19 changed everything within your activities within Yachat? Employees as well, and employees of Yachat also? So members are really challenging ourselves because effective and efficient is possible. A community that by and large appreciates routine, you know, that's like the types of routine why not be playing, you know, the jobs on colds, on and off, sleepily camps, which are so important to people in our orbit, they weren't allowed to run in New York. So it's been, it's been here, you know, let alone our weekend retreats and social programs, the way that we do that. It, you know, one thing after the other that is just looking so different and it takes so much adjusting to for everyone, but, you know, even more so people who, who really thrive off of routine and really, you know, crave that structure. Something else I would say interesting that I don't think it's unique to New York, something interesting we saw here is, the group homes in New York. Yeah, and no visitation to boot, you know. Exactly the people you're living with, you know, moving in a little bit of a different direction as people are getting more used to the routine, but I would say also is, you know, your question earlier where we've gone in terms of inclusion, I'm curious what this new emphasis on pods and small groups is going to be doing to all of our progress, right? Because we're, we're now not talking about like how to get every single person to the table. We're talking about like, send yours to you closest to you and they are at your table and anyone else is a threat. And I think it's going to take time to undo that. And, and, you know, I urge all of the listeners to really think about the people who aren't making the cut and, and reaching out to them. Mm. Yeah, and making outsiders feel, you know, even more outsiders. Yeah, that's your point there. What are the misconceptions around people with special needs when they first meet them? This is an opinion question. Yeah, yeah. Human nature, we first notice, you know, our difference is all short, whatever it may be. And something important to the organization is, you know, at these programs that, yes, okay, it is natural people see difference, but really focusing on seeing the commonalities a short story if we have time. No, it's fine. No, it's fine. If we go over, it's completely okay. Go ahead. Okay. How do you, how do you pronounce that? I'm sorry. Go ahead. Hearing that you're traveling for five, one, you know, like, okay. Yeah, but I've been, yeah, we've been, I've been to, yeah, I've been to Israel. You're only allowed to carry like 50 pounds. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly, my personal opinion. Mm-hmm. Because be that for another time, if you do food boxes. Yeah, well, yeah, we plan to do that, but go ahead. Mine's blowing to our families, and I always knew when running these parlor meetings. Is that anything you said? There's another question that might've, that I can interject there. One of the things of me being a challenged person is when I first went to Israel in 2014, it was my first time, and I went with family, and of course, family is not going to take us to a dangerous place. So, but one of the biggest things is the money, the money exchange. Because if you don't know the money exchange, it's very confusing. Yeah. Yeah, in one year, I think it was 2015 year, like this question wasn't, the next week I had another parlor meeting, and then I went to the house, and I was just so deeply impacted by that, because I think that we're seeing it, that your inclusion does, your question was about misconceptions, and what inclusion does, and what exposure does, is it changes people's attitudes, and the way that they're perceiving what's the normal? All of a sudden they keep talking. I'm gonna ask this question that, I'm gonna ask this question that's not on the list, and then my wife wants to ask another question. Being, see if we can answer this the right way, or kind of pick it apart. Being the fact that 2020 was a bad year, and we're still in the pandemic, and there's a whole lot of things with prejudice going on. People putting bad things on synagogues, and that type of thing. Is Yaha teaching, or is OU teaching, or both? Any classes on prejudice in people with special needs, in any way to kind of help with that, or kind of smooth it over, because there's always been prejudice around Jewish people with special needs, or Jewish people in general, especially with World War II, et cetera. So, is there anything that is being done? That's a really interesting question. I apologize if I threw you off, but go ahead. Our Zoom program, their social programs, and support groups and things like that, and navigated there. But to think about, in terms of the wider OU, I do think that there are definitely branches of the OU more focused on that. The OU actually has a whole advocacy branch called the Teach Coalition. They focus mostly on schools, and I think synagogues, it's not my realm, so I apologize, I'm not totally. 100% familiar. Okay, anything, what do you wanna ask? Do you teach another language to the people with disabilities? In terms of Hebrew, is Hebrew taught to your participants, or how do you teach Hebrew, or is there an easy way to teach the language of Hebrew to people with disabilities? They're Jewish schools, so half the days they're learning secular subjects, half the day they're learning Hebrew subjects, including Hebrew language. At our programs, we teach songs and chants and things like that, a lot of them with Hebrew words. It's definitely built into our culture, but each of our participants are coming with such different backgrounds, so it's kind of hard to have a one-size-fits-all, but especially for things I got to talk about before, the sitter will take certain phrases in Hebrew and things like that. Okay, is there anything before we end, is there anything you would like to add, especially promotions or anything of that nature? Take your time. I've said it is the month of February, which is Jezeem's Jewish disability. It's the Jewish disability month, but Jewish disability awareness acceptance and inclusion, where there's an increased voice, there's an amplification in the community about disability and inclusion, and Jaffa really does a lot during the month to promote that advocacy work and really amplifying everything that individual disabilities can do and through workshops and many other programs, but I invite, I think, two things. One is, I invite anyone that may gain or may know somebody who may gain from Yakut services to please reach out through the website. During this pandemic, we are offering almost a dozen virtual programs a day, music, dance, trivia night, games with local schools, monthly birthday parties, we're offering support groups for individuals, parents, siblings, quality programs at home, art deliveries, I mentioned the boxes before. In some places, like in New York, and only in one of the communities we're allowed to impersonate right now, I mean, I've come with an impersonal program, but we, you know, if you know somebody or you yourself are interested, please reach out, we would love to meet you. And what I'll leave with is, that's future. Something that's- Yeah, yeah, I apologize. What is Yak, I apologize. What is Yak, you know, the future of YAHAT given the pandemic? I mean, we don't know when this thing will end, hopefully, and soon, but what is YAHAT's future? I apologize, go ahead. You've got not a variety of other who both passionately answer what's your hope for YAHAT. Why? This is a pretty amazing answer. Why? Because YAHAT's are doing it on their own. The job sites are doing it on their own. That we reached this conclusion is just so natural to everybody. And it's not even, you know, like, it's not even like you are thinking like, okay, you know, what steps need to be taken, it's just so much a part of our fiber innovation, that would be the- Okay, go ahead, last question. My wife wanted to ask a question. Sure. Do you prepare people with disabilities for their box mitzvahs or bar mitzvahs? Did you get the question? In other regions, it's done differently. And every family celebrates a little bit differently, but they're definitely, you know, have been many instances over the years where, you know, people are learning something or celebrating in a certain way with YAHAT or at a YAHAT program or, you know, running a program and they're inviting their YAHAT friend, Jewish teens. And I would say also other life cycle events as well. We run a eating and marriage course. We have an amazing social worker who has support. But no, I think life cycle events, you know? I think that that's also so deeply tied, you know, when you're talking about like, why Jewish programming, you know, I think that for any religion and any, you know, and whatever religion people are practicing, life cycle events become so important to those practices. So yeah, the hope is that we have, you know, that we are there for the life cycle events to celebrate the good and be supported in the not so good. And yeah, we, you know, about two years ago, YAHAT hired a rabbi for the organization, who's fantastic, Rabbi Shai Shuster. So, you know, we have somebody giving that guidance also and helping answer questions that families may have of how they can practice and, you know, what they can do. Okay, well, we would like to thank you for joining us on this edition of Able Then On Air. Can you give the contact information of YAHAT in the website? Sure. Thank you so much for having me and see, yeah, you can hear more about YAHAT.com and O-R-G. And on there, there's information how to get the contact information, thank you for having me. By the way, YAHAT in New York in partnership with Korean publishing of Jerusalem as well as the Alphadoc Union presents a special book now. Sometimes it's extremely hard. Before we end Able Then On Air, sometimes it's extremely hard for people with disabilities, people that want to know more about Jewish life and that are Jewish, which this episode is about, sometimes it's really hard for people with disabilities to have an accessible book or an accessible place to worship. So, what YAHAT in New York along with the Alphadoc Union and Korean publishing have done is that the legacy heritage edition Korean YAHAT Siddha, which is a standard size book, the YAHAT Siddha is a trailblazing prayer book intentionally and lovingly designed to enable those with different abilities to have the inclusive and meaningful prayer experience. So this book allows easy reading and easy English translation and it's innovative design and Able to be read in a color-coded format, which you'll see pictures of in a minute. And it's color-coded and it makes it easier for people to read. So for more information on this book and how to get it, you can contact YAHAT in New York at www.YAHAT.org. That's www, Y-A-C-H-A-D.org. We would like to thank our special partnership. We would like to thank YAHAT in New York and the Orthodox Union for the special edition of Able to Learn Air. I'm Lauren Seiler and Arlene is here as well. We would like to thank you for joining us on this special edition of Able to Learn Air. See you next time. This special episode of Able to Learn Air is brought to you in partnership with YAHAT New York because everyone belongs and the Orthodox Union.