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From the Rabbi's
Desk..
Shortly after returning from Israel, I spoke about my determination to make our Synagogue’s bima accessible to people in wheelchairs. Since there were not too many people in Shul that summer day, I am writing so that all our members will learn of this initiative. I have become rather passionate about the question of wheelchair accessibility because of a program in which I participated in Israel and because of an incident which occurred in our Synagogue this past June.
The entrance to our Synagogue on Parsons Boulevard does indeed have a well planned built in ramp providing comfortable access to the building. The entire building with the exception of the library, is on the ground floor level. A person in a wheelchair has access to the Temple’s office, my study, the resource room, the meeting rooms, the ballroom and both sanctuaries’…the main sanctuary and the Reverend Ezra Goldman Bet Midrash, our daily Synagogue. However, our bima in the main sanctuary, while quite low with only three small steps, is not wheelchair accessible.
This past June when we honored Henry Kerner on a Shabbat morning, one of his guests, a former active member of our Synagogue, now in a wheelchair, was very eager to join his wife for an honor at the Torah. It took at least four men to lift him and the wheelchair onto the bima.
In Israel, I also became very aware of the issue of wheelchair accessibility when I met some young men and women who founded an organization called B’maaglei Tzedek (in paths of justice). They issue certificates of social justice to restaurants who treat and compensate their workers fairly and which are wheelchair accessible. There are a number of restaurants in Jerusalem which already display this “hechsher” and the public is slowly being sensitized to the issue. Because of its wars and terrorist bombings, Israel is a country with a disproportionately large number of people in wheelchairs.
In America, the Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative Rabbinate) is pursuing a somewhat similar program of issuing “social hechshers” to Kosher slaughter houses which meet standards of fair and equitable treatment to their workers and which meet the highest standards of kashrut as they relate to humane slaughter. The overriding principal here is that there needs to be more to kosher meat than the ritual requirements. Interestingly, Arkady Gaydamak is running for Mayor of Jerusalem on a platform of social justice.
I have already brought the question of wheelchair accessibility to our Temple officers and we will begin to seriously explore the issue. Anything we do will of course have to meet building code requirements and I am sure that we will be able to find a good solution. All the food served in our Synagogue is Kosher. We now need to add another dimension of kashrut not to the food but to the building itself.
Best wishes for a Shana Tovah. May the year 5768 bring the blessings of health, joy and peace to all.
Rabbi Albert Thaler
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