Teach Your Children- All Your Children
JACOBS, BETTY S.
Teach Your Children All Your Children "Iff Moses had applied to ayeshiva 10 years ago, eager to learn Torah, they would have given him the boot," says Dr. David Lazerson, director of...
...She had never dealt with a child with any sort of handicap, and she wasn't sure she could handle it...
...In order to alleviate these family frustrations, Manhattan Day School, in conjunction with the New York Board of Jewish Education, formed a parent support group...
...According to Jaffa, the average is in excess of 510,000 per year per child...
...The rabbi told Zweiter of a Yachad boy who after the prayer approached him and whispered, 'Rabbi, I'm not embarrassed today.' " Our Way offers classes in Judaism and social opportunities for deaf singles...
...The administration went a little overboard in preparing the other children for Jonathan's arrival...
...Goldberg uses the signs for "holy book" instead...
...You need the numbers in order to put together that kind of program...
...I didn't know what to expect," admits Miretzky...
...As soon as P'TACH put its plan into action, the organization realized what it would cost to educate these children...
...It's not their fault that they have a different learning style," says Lazerson, former director of the special education program at Manhattan Day School...
...Rabbi Neuberger attributes this to Chaim, whom he calls "a future leader for the Jewish deaf...
...Philip Wemtraub's parents and rabbi weren't sure he could learn more than the Torah blessings...
...continued on page 57 ous, joyous, and supremely enriching...
...Parents were calling me from all over the country asking for help and advice," says Burton Jaffa, national director of P'TACH, whose son has a learning disability.' 'They were grateful to connect with others struggling with the problem...
...Deaf children might not be able to learn the tune for chanting their haftorahs...
...Another ongoing issue for the Reform day schools is finding the appropriate special educators, especially for the Hebrew and Judaic curriculum, says Renee Goldberg, a special education consultant i»r Massachusetts...
...The only solution, parents say, is to persuade more day schools to share the responsibility and the Jewish community to lend its monetary support...
...In 1979, Yeshiva University High Sehool in Manhattan became the first school to house P'TACH's special education program...
...a name that instantly was a natural part of his life as were the Bible stories, holiday rituals...
...The miracle of Chanukah, the rabbi explained, was not that the small cruse of oil lasted for eight days, it was that there were people who had enough faith to take a chance on lighting that oil...
...His sense of fun had an infectious effect on everyone," relates Miretzky...
...We thought the school might be willing to expand their program to include younger children," says Kellman...
...Luckily, Shevach happens to have excellent physical accessibility," says principal Rivka Blau...
...Once Malkah spoke about Moses...
...Getting the programs started meant surmounting two major hurdles, the lack of support from the school boards and poor finances...
...Their Judaism is part of who they are—you can't ignore it" she said...
...For some it is a shot in the arm, others— the focus of their education," says Stuart Saposh, principal of the Solomon Schechter Day School in Westchester, New York...
...Are these kids fully integrated into the school setting or are they seen as the "stupid" kids...
...The bathroom was a big issue...
...At about the same time, a group of parents, dissatisfied with the gap in their children's Jewish education, banded together to voice their demands...
...He fell into the class routine, and the other children accepted him...
...As open-minded as I think I am, I was skeptical," he admits...
...Lazerson says every school can create alternative methods of educating within the same building...
...It challenged us to team more, to observe more, and to be more, and it gave Sam a very special part of his life that had meaning beyond measure...
...There is still, however, a population of Jewish children who are finding it a herculean task getting into a Jewish day school...
...To make Jewish education this kind of positive experience that will build self-esteem, educators work with the child's strengths rather than battling against the child's weaknesses- If a learning-disabled child would be too frustrated trying to read Hebrew, the teacher can emphasize auditory memory and visual "cues" rather than reading Some children are helped by games in which they pose their bodies in the shapes of Hebrew letters, or form Hebrew letters out of modeling clay...
...Then Malkah carefully explained how Moses took the little sheep in his arms and carried him back...
...On the day I was teaching the class the bracha (blessing) a Jew says after going to the bathroom, a challenging question was raised...
...But after a few lessons, his parents realized Goldberg was beginning to teach him to read his own portion from the Torah...
...BETTYSJACOBS Can Jewish Education Meet The Needs of Kids with Disabilities...
...to a 1987 report to the U.S...
...Educators find that the most effective teaching method for these children is experiential...
...Manhattan Day School, which receives calls daily from parents searching desperately for a place that will accept their children, winds up serving many students outside the New York metropolitan area, some from as far as New Jersey...
...For every day school that has successfully admitted children with developmental or physical disabilities, many still lock their doors...
...In 1983, a 14-year-old girl with cerebral palsy named Malkah wheeled right up to the entrance of Shevach Yeshiva in Queens, N.Y., to enroll as a full-time student...
...What was most important to her was how the others reacted," says Blau.' 'She could detect whether someone accepted her or was fearful...
...Within the past six years, many day schools have instituted resource rooms where, during their regular school day, children come in to work on their specific learning difficulties...
...I explained that this is Jonathan's way of going to the bathroom and he also has to thank God...
...Since she had very little fine motor control, the student beside her in each class turned the pages of her textbook...
...We knew close to nothing about the nebulous term 'learning disabilities,' " admits Martin Schloss, director of special education for the Board of Jewish Education in Manhattan...
...his parents enrolled him in a Sunday school called Shema i/Ezer ("Hear and Help") for children with special needs...
...Teach Your Children continued from page 39 Manhattan Day School's principal Kaminetsky spent some time deliberating the decision to take on a physically impaired child...
...Teachers and parents often fear that Jewish education after school hours will be too much for a child who already puts a lot of energy into coping with a handicap...
...What about the Special Ed...
...At our first shabbaton, one of our Yachad members, a woman with Down syndrome, turned to me and said, 'Now I belong to NCSY like my brother and sister,' " Zweiter says...
...There are a number of community programs for after-school Hebrew education like Shema VEzer throughout the U.S...
...We are obligated to educate every single Jewish child,"says Schloss of the New York Board of Jewish Education...
...The only accommodations we needed to provide for Malkah were human ones...
...In its effort to become a light unto the other schools, Manhattan Day School has to turn students away due to overcrowding...
...But religious and other private schools did not have to accommodate the handicapped...
...Much time is spent outside the classroom...
...Although Sam had never been to a formal Jewish service of any kind, when his sheepdog, Chelsea, died, he spontaneously recited, "Baruch atah adonai Eloheinu metech ha'o-tam asher kidshanu b'mtzvotav v'tzivanu lhadlik ner she...
...Congress prepared by the Interagency Committee on Learning Disabilities, 5 to 10 percent of the national population are affected by learning disabilities...
...We thought that a special Sunday school would be a nice experience, and it would give us two free, quiet hours on Sunday mornings...
...Due to the efforts of P'TACH, more schools are becoming cognizant of the need for special education for the learning disabled...
...The school welcomed her immediately...
...After his second year, he transferred to Ner Israel's rabbinical program in Baltimore...
...Kakon recently married a woman who is hearing-impaired but not deaf...
...They jump out of their skins from sheer frustration...
...He'd walk in for an interview with his speech impediment and they'd say, 'Adios, pal, we don't have a speech and language program here.' " Lazerson teaches students with speech problems, dyslexia and other learning obstacles...
...administrators' offices" throughout the country's major cities, and programs have been set up in Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles and Baltimore...
...He has attended Manhattan Day School since kindergarten...
...According * The Brooklyn Hebrew School for Special Children, Hebrew Academy for Special Children (HASC) and the Hebrew Institute for the Deaf in Brooklyn and Maimonides Institute for Exceptional Children in Queens...
...Chelsea' Ithe blessing over the candles, changed to say...
...Parents of children with learning disabilities are often advised by teachers that learning Hebrew might confuse their children in their English skills...
...At first, we were a shoulder to cry on," says Jaffa...
...The response to the fourth son, who doesn't know how to ask, is, "v'sheayno yodayah lishol, aht p'tach lo"—open up his heart and his mind (to his tradition and history...
...His education began in public school, but when he reached high school age he decided to go to the Ner Israel yeshiva in Toronto...
...During that shabbaton, the rabbi leading the service recited the prayer for the new month...
...The decision was left to their moral consciences...
...There are some members of the board who would prefer not having the program in the school," confides Kaminetsky...
...Word spread quickly and P'TACH's first' conference in 1977 brought out 100 parents...
...Able to Shine: After-School Hebrew Classes for Children with Special Needs When Sam Levine was 10...
...In the beginning the administration and staff were apprehensive, but they have become Jonathan's strongest advocates...
...The name P'TACH, Hebrew for "open," was inspired by a passage in the Passover haggadah...
...In the past three years P'TACH has also been instrumental in setting up eight programs in Israel...
...The organization also holds annual conventions and publishes its own monthly magazine...
...I tell these parents to walk into their local principal's office and refuse to leave until the principal agrees to address their problem," . Kaminetsky says...
...We break our backs fund-raising...
...There was not a dry eye in the house...
...Kakon divides his time between a social work program at the University of Maryland and rabbinical school at Ner Israel...
...stigma...
...We watched other parents give up...
...You've got to make your classroom the best Chaim Kakon, who is deaf, learns Talmud watching his interpreter sign Rabbi Shraga Neuberger's lecture at the Ner Israel yeshiva in Baltimore...
...Some weeks later, they discovered that he was mastering the day's entire Torah reading...
...Rabbi Neuberger says that parents of deaf children all over the country have called to say they would move to Baltimore if Kakon would work with their children...
...Yachad organizes shabbatons that bring together Jewish communities with the often closeted population of Jewish retarded...
...The connection to the Bar Mitzvah was unstated, but understood...
...Blau pauses, moved by the memory...
...Malkah's classes were scheduled for her convenience...
...Finding people to do both the secular and religious teaching has been tough...
...Most programs require speech and language professionals, adaptive physical education and other support services...
...He was classified as moderately to severely handicapped, both mentally and physically...
...Yet when you walk into a synagogue you don't see these people...
...says his mother, Maryl Levine...
...Jonathan, now 7, was born with spina bifida (a hole in his spine) which left him paralyzed from his waist down...
...Children will ask their questions, but they really don't care about differences as long as it won't hurt them...
...Learning-disabled children are children with normal intelligence who show a significant discrepancy between capability and performance...
...room in the school," Lazerson says...
...Although the community has given Saposh moral support, the school has had difficulty generating money for the program...
...Under the auspices of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations (the OU) and the National Council for Synagogue Youth (NCSY), organizations such as Yachad and Our Way have made people more aware that Jews with Down syndrome or deafness have been unnecessarily isolated from Jewish community activities...
...Sam's Judaism "was spontaneDay school administrators are reluctant to make major external and internal structural changes in their schools (i.e., installing ramps and rearranging schedules around a child's movements...
...She described how he had been tending his sheep when one of them strayed and how he found it weakly bending over a stream for a drink...
...When Manhattan Day School's principal, Rabbi David Kaminetsky, accepted the job in 1981, he inherited the school's two-year-old special education program...
...One of the children asked if Jonathan has to say the bracha...
...Every week a student presents a d'var Torah (a brief lesson on the Bible)," Blau recalls...
...We weren't sure his teacher knew what she was in for with Sam, but the fact was that ire didn't know what we were in forr Sam became Shmuel...
...Hebrew blessings and the Hebrew words he was learning as part of the conversational Hebrew program...
...I was afraid something might go wrong and I'd be responsible...
...Special educators have discovered that Hebrew studies do not have to be straight from the text, cut and dried...
...Chaim Kakon, one of many rabbinical students at Ner Israel in Baltimore, was the yeshiva's first deaf one...
...As some of the program's founders wrote, "Our goal is to help the child to experience the warmth and joy of Judaism...
...Aside from an occasional wheelchair stunt (i.e., a "wheelie"), which thrilled his classmates and terrified Miretzky, she felt at ease with Jonathan's presence...
...I was concerned that Jonathan would be a burden and that the teachers couldn't handle it...
...Many of them are banging their wheelchairs against closed doors...
...They think because we offer special education we're automatically going to attract only children with problems...
...In fact when he wanted something very badly, he declared an eleventh commandment such as Thou shalt take thy son for a haircut" "Shema vTizer seemed always to enable him to shine, and to achieve more than he was able to in any other area of his life," his mother said...
...However, both Jewish educators and parents agree there's a lot more convincing to do...
...If we want to give Jewish children the opportunity to develop the skills that will help them fulfill their potentials as integral members of society, then mainstreaming is the most effective way to accomplish that goal," says Schloss...
...There was nothing available in the New York area...
...A learning disability is a disorder in the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using spoken or written language...
...Only the "ch" sound is hard to teach, Goldberg said...
...Due to Malkah's warmth and high spirits, in a very short time her classmates not only accepted but admired Malkah...
...When I wanted to go to ayeshiva and saw steps, I heard them saying to me, 'keep away,' " says Sharon Lacks, a woman in her late 20s who has cerebral palsy...
...but they can learn to use the tiop (conciliation marks) to help them say the verses with the right phrasing Compared to English, Hebrew is easy for deaf people to read aloud, because the letters and vowels are pronounced the same way in every word...
...When he becomes a rabbi and social worker, Kakon plans to teach and counsel deaf Jews...
...The existing special education programs are overcrowded and lack sufficient funds...
...Resources anO referrals are available through the New York offices of the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education iCAJD, the Jewish Educational Service ol North Ametica (JESNA), the Lehiyot program ol the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (Reform), and the United Synagogue Commission on Special Education (Conservative), as well as Parents for Torah for All Children (PTACH...
...We ran up against school boards that didn't want a stigma on their schools," says Jaffa...
...After all, we could be passing by another Moses...
...He chanted his haftorah and led the musaf service with tremendous confidence and poise Happiness just radiated from him, and the experience stayed with him," "You start and you just keep going as far as you can go, without any preconceived notion of what the child can do...
...Not every parent can afford these steep tuitions...
...It is crucial that a day school's principal "convey the message that these kids are an integral part of the school," explains Judah Weller, P'TACH's educational director...
...This kid who didn't seem to notice an elephant at the zoo, picked up the parsley from our seder plate and announced that it was to remind us of spring," Levine says...
...No longer...
...Ner Israel now has two more deaf students...
...I don't have a beard, and I'm a Jew," Goldberg tells children...
...The Kellmans heard about a learning disabilities program set up for junior high school children at Manhattan Day School...
...P'TACH hired educators and rented space in day schools...
...They learn to ease up on the child, to lower their expectations and develop realistic goals...
...Instead he says, since the school began the program, parents of all kinds of children have waited on line to get their children in...
...Now we can help them start a program within a school in their community...
...The member of Manhattan Day School's staff most affected by Jonathan's entry was his first teacher there, Malkah Miretzky...
...This kid who couldn't remember his own address and phone number asked for Wia/a/when he wanted some milk...
...About 10 percent of our population is handicapped in some way," relates Chana Zweiter, director of Yachad...
...One psychologist said that it would be a waste of time to teach children with disabilities about the Jewish holidays, because "the holidays come only once a year.' In contrast Jewish special educators "feel it is vital that kids know whafs going on at holidays and Jewish life cycle events," explained Marcia Goldberg one of the founders of Shema vTLzer in Washington, D.C...
...The parents wind up putting enormous pressure on the older child and fall into the trap of comparing the children, leaving both themselves and the child feeling inadequate...
...We try to bring them to the point where they can accept the child for who he/she is," Lazerson explains...
...Reaching the milestone of Bar or Bat Mitzvah is especially important to a child with disabilities, "His Bar Mitzvah was a turning point in his life, because he saw that he could participate in his religious life in a way equal to his peers," says Fran Eizenstat the mother of a learning disabled son who went through Shema v'Ezer and is now active in Jewish life at his college...
...Not every kid can sit and learn all day...
...We figured it was worth trying...
...In the 1960s special day schools for the developmentally disabled (retarded) and for the deaf were opened in the boroughs of New York City.* But the population of children with serious learning disabilities went undiagnosed and continued to grow...
...To better communicate with him, more than a dozen of his yeshiva classmates are enrolled in a sign language class at their own expense...
...The following year three other New York area day schools followed suit...
...Only when we actively commit ourselves to that goal are we assuring a strong Jewish future...
...In the 1970s, the country was becoming sensitized to the predicament of the handicapped...
...They have a fourth grader who is not doing well while their younger one in second grade is knocking on the back door and is about to go zooming by the older sibling," Lazerson says...
...To sign "Jew" one strokes an imaginary beard...
...Special education is simply good education," says Lazerson...
...Philip's Bar Mitzvah took place during Chanukah...
...Saposh says the vast majority of quality special education programs are in Orthodox schools because the financial base just isn't present in the Conservative and Reform day schools...
...Chaim is the son of a Detroit shochet and grandson of the first deaf rabbi in the United States...
...It was 1979 when we started looking for a Jewish day school for Jenny," says Ira Kellman, the father of a child with cerebral palsy and learning disabilities...
...Chaim capitalized on his easy charm and his classmates' curiosity and persuaded several students to learn sign language...
...Sam Levine knew he belonged...
...He was thus guaranteed chevrusas (study partners) for Hebrew studies...
...In 1976, P'TACH (Parents for Torah for All Children) began as an advocacy group for the provision of special education in Jewish day schools...
...Because of her parents' persistence, Jenny was able to attend the day school and other parents began putting their influence to work...
...I had explained that we thank God that everything in our bodies is working okay...
...We had to go down on our knees and beg schools to take us in...
...In a "contained classroom" program there are no more than eight children in a class and each class has two teachers...
...These kids wound up in the schools set up for the retarded...
...Accepting Jonathan was a first for MDS," says Jonathan's mother, Lisa Schulz...
...He says that a decade ago most Jewish children with learning problems, spina bifida, cerebral palsy or any other disability had no choice but to forgo their Jewish education and attend the public or private institutions that would accommodate them...
...The legislatures in state after state embodied in law the principle that every child was entitled to an education no matter what the handicap, a principle that soon became incorporated into federal law...
...P'TACH's parents have "sat in...
...Goldberg said...
...P'TACH's birth marked a significant change in the Jewish educational community's attitude toward children with learning disabilities...
...These schools struggle to build their population," says Saposh...
...David Lazerson, director of individ-ualized programming at the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway, N.Y...
...Through private funds arranged by his teacher, Rabbi Shraga Neuberger, he has had a sign-language interpreter throughout his two years at the school...
...We have given out SI.4 million in scholarships this year alone,"says Jaffa...
...They devised a plan of action for fire drills concerning Jonathan...
...He prayed that it should be a month of good health, that God should bless each Jew with all that he/she needs and that He should protect us from feeling embarrassed...
...A grass roots parents' movement has convinced day schools to start programs for children with special needs...
...Rodeph Shalom, one of two Reform day schools in the New York City area, has had to rely on grants to keep its six-year-old resource room operating...
...Who sanctified us through the commandments and commanded us to light Chelsea's candlel Moses was Sam's hero and the Ten Commandments were a gift he wished had been given to him...
...Learning disabled kids have a rough time...
...Perhaps the best indications that day schools are becoming more receptive to students with disabilities are the examples of two students named Jonathan and Chaim...
...I felt that these kids were not given a fair shake from society by being labeled rejects...
...They wanted their children to have the same opportunity to learn Hebrew, Bible and Talmud and Jewish history, laws and customs as the rest of Jewish children...
...At Cha-nukah, out poured the words for 'Rock of Ages,' and every Friday night Sam recited the b'rachasovtr the wine and bread...
...When Jonathan was being catheterized (method of emptying bladder involving the use of a tube) the kids raised questions about it," Miretzky continues...
...Falling behind and frustrated, they misbehave and are often asked to leave the school...
...I've had kids from the regular classes approach me about how they can get into the program...
...Adults freak out when it comes to differences," Schulz continues...
...We want him to see himself as someone who belongs...
...Their efforts have made a tremendous difference for their children and have started securing a place in Jewish education for successive generations of children with special needs...
...Then she said emphatically, 'It was for this quality of chesed (kindness) that God chose Moses to be our greatest leader!' " Her classmates cheered...
...But in sign language, the signs tor religious words were developed from a decidedly non-Jewish viewpoint Jews have developed more ecumenical, alternative signs, but they are not widely known The standard sign (or "Bible," tor example, are the signs that read "Jesus' book...
...In recent years, the public schools' focus has been to place these children in the regular classroom as much as possible...
...No matter which denomination or community a family is affiliated with, each family goes through periods of difficulty accepting that their child needs special help...
...The school installed a ramp and plans to install another...
Vol. 15 • February 1990 • No. 1
