LIOR DOES DALLAS

9-10-08
I never thought I’d have enough to say to blog. But I never counted on the journey of the past five years with Praying with Lior.

I made this film because I fell in love with Lior, his family, and his community. And along the way I learned about disability, about inclusion, and the extent of our society’s loss due to widespread exclusion of people with disabilities. I like to say that I’ve become an “accidental activist,” and I truly feel privileged to have been the medium through which Lior’s story got told. But what’s been extraordinary, and the reason for this blog, is seeing the incredible efforts that individuals and communities across the country are making on behalf of inclusion. This blog is an attempt to share some of the amazing things I’ve seen, to salute these efforts and to offer a model to be duplicated.

I’ve just come back from Dallas, which is exploding on behalf of special needs. It’s a story I’ve seen many times before, but I’ve never seen it happen so fast.

In this case, a family who were 5th generation synagogue members were told that their son, who has Asperger’s syndrome, couldn’t have a Bar Mitzvah. Louis Zweig, David’s father was appalled. But he never considered looking for a new shul, because “I’d been in those same seats on the high holidays since I was born.”

When Louis decided to make sure David had a Bar Mitzvah, he also kindled the spark that led to the event I keynoted. The event was the kickoff of the Special Needs Initiative, which marks a city-wide effort on behalf of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas to respond to the needs of people with disabilities.

The Zweigs co-founded a foundation called the Gladys Golman/Faye Dallen Education fund, that provided the training of 200 religious, day and preschool school teachers to work with children with disabilities. At the event, federation announced, and introduced, their first part-time special needs coordinator, Wendy Narzem. The Gladys Golman/Faye Dallen Education Fund is also funding a federation library collection of books on special needs.

The kickoff welcomed 600 people in two movie theaters. Under the tireless effort of the Jewish Education Department’s Assistant Director Melissa Bernstein, the Federation partnered with local agencies such as, Jewish Family Service, the JCC, residential facilities for adults with special needs, schools, congregations an many others. Materials were shared, funds were raised, and a huge, multi-faith, mutli-generational audience left the event charged and encouraged. After having the experience of “attending” Lior’s Bar Mitzvah, Dallas has a shared vision, which they will adapt and shape in their own image, of what is possible.