Strange bedfellows

The Bizchut event advertisement

Back to the plight of people with disabilities - and let's not forget their families!

I was invited this week to attend a an evening of lectures and discussion relating to independent, in community living  for people with disabilities. It is jointly sponsored by Bizchut, the Har Nof (Jerusalem) office of the Ministry of Welfare and the Har Nof neighborhood council.

The first oddity in this event is that males are barred. Bizchut is an unequivocally secular NGO, founded by none other than the late and unequivocally secular Shulamit Aloni. So why have they agreed to this condition? Aren't men equally entitled to whatever is on offer? Couldn't separate seating have resolved the brouhaha that a mixed crowd would trigger for Hareidi attendees?

What puzzled me next was that among the recipients of the email was a senior Aleh administrator. Aleh, by its very existence, undermines the cause of in community and family living for people with disabilities. Its four large, closed institutions scattered across the country house a total of nearly 1,000 babies, children and young adults. It siphons off gargantuan sums of government funds and private donations that would otherwise be available to the those with disabilities who live at home..

I hope to attend and learn what role Bizchut believes that Aleh plays in the transition toward community living for the disabled.

Will keep you all posted.