Two Florida synagogues host special Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month services
Three clergy ordained by Jewish Spiritual Leaders' Institute joined together in Florida to host a Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month service.
MELBOURNE, FLORIDA, USA, February 20, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Two Melbourne, Florida synagogues came together on February 9th to celebrate JDAIM (Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month) with a special shabbat. Temple Israel of Brevard, led by Rabbi Karen Fanwick, hosted a joint service with Temple Beth Sholom and their Rabbi Craig Mayers. Special guest Rabbi Cantor Ralph Goren, who was visiting from his home state of New Jersey, lent his musical and vocal talents to the evening.
The service included participation from various congregants with challenges and disabilities. Awareness and acceptance were the themes of the service, with the community learning to recite the “Shema Yisrael” prayer using American Sign Language.
The evening concluded with a well-attended Oneg sponsored by the Brevard Jewish Inclusion Network, the leading support and advocacy group in the area for Jewish inclusivity. Each year Temple Israel and Temple Beth Sholom, despite operating in different branches of Judaism, come together as a unified community to honor and celebrate JDAIM. The 2025 event is scheduled in February at Temple Beth Sholom.
All three rabbis are graduates of JSLI – the Jewish Spiritual Leader’s Institute, which is the rabbinical school for Jewish professionals who wish to fulfill their dream of becoming clergy. Rabbis Fanwick and Mayers serve in pulpit positions in the same town (Melbourne, FL) while Rabbi Cantor Goren serves as chazzan and kol bo in his community of Atlantic City, NJ.
Rabbi Mayers notes, "It was joy to work with my colleagues to create this rich and moving service for those with disabilities. The pragmatic JSLI curriculum offered us the means and knowledge to develop and unique, loving and meaningful program."
ABOUT SIM SHALOM AND JSLI
Sim Shalom is an interactive online Jewish Universalist synagogue which is liberal in thought and traditional in liturgy. Created in 2009 by Rabbi Steven Blane on Manhattan's Upper West Side, Sim Shalom offers a means of connecting the unconnected. Rabbi Blane and Associate Rabbis lead accessible Shabbat services every Friday night using a virtual interface and additionally Sim Shalom provides online education programs, Jazz concerts, conversion and life-cycle ceremonies along with weeknight services at 7:00PM EST.
Rabbi Steven Blane is also the founder and director of the Jewish Spiritual Leaders' Institute, the online professional rabbinical program and of the Union of Jewish Universalist Communities, http://www.ujuc.org.
Sim Shalom, a non profit 501 © (3) tax-exempt organization, nurtures a Jewish connection through its mission of innovative services, creative education and dynamic outreach to the global community. For more information visit the website or call 201-338-0165.
Carole Kivett
Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute/Sim Shalom
+1 201-338-0165
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