Tikkun Olam

My daughter, who has been in a wheel chair for almost two years has told me her own horror stories about navigating the Tel Aviv streets and sidewalks.  These--streets and sidewalks--were not built in the early years for accessibility.  No one had any idea what that was. The disabled were in essence shunted aside, and were effectively excluded from  typical activities which we consider to be 'normal' and which are totally accessible in the United States, such as traveling by bus to a restaurant, being able to enter the restaurant and sitting at a table, going shopping at the shuk (outdoor market), going to a movie--just to name a few.  There is very little in this young country which is accessible to people in wheelchairs.  Israel is somewhat like the United States was before the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act ,which was enacted in 1990 and amended in 2009 . The activities which I mentioned above being inaccessible are bad enough, but how a...

(I wrote this the day we returned from Florida, December f24th, 2012. I just published it today, 1 January 2013). It has been over a month since I have posted on this blog. So many things have happened.  We just yesterday returned from our "vacation" to Florida, for our biggest family event since my eldest daughter's wedding.  My only sister, my niece and her new husband, also flew down from New York for this event.  What was the occasion? Our eldest grandson, who has Down Syndrome, became a Bar-Mitzvah.  But this was only the tail end of the entire three months of family activities. First, I don't even remember if I wrote about my daughter's visit to the States.  I might have mentioned it in a previous post, but now, let me elaborate: my daughter was invited by the JDC ( Joint Distribution Committee ) to speak at their board meeting in New York.  They bought her ticket to the States, with a return to Israel in January, in their kindness, allowing her t...