Disability Justice Torah Circle

The Disability Justice Torah Circle is a space for Jews with disabilities to build community around Torah and engage Jewish text through a disability justice lens. The space nurtures and amplifies the voices of Jews with disabilities and produces “Disability Torah” to impact the broader Jewish community.

The Disability Justice Torah Circle offers different ways to gather. Check out the offerings below to determine which space is right for you.

Disability Justice Torah Circle Offerings

This is an ongoing workshop or people who identify as disabled or chronically ill to explore disability justice teachings as they intersect with our Jewish lives. We will gather to build a well of ‘svara’ around disability justice and spirituality by seeking the Torah — animating teachings — inherent in the work of a range of disability justice leaders, and bringing those teachings into conversation with our own experiences. Texts will be in English and from a variety of disabled writers and activists.

Who is the Disability Justice as Spiritual Text group for?

– people who identify as disabled or chronically ill
– people who are exploring whether they might identify as disabled or chronically ill

This is an ongoing, drop-in spiritual practice & support group for people who identify as still taking the pandemic very seriously, and feeling gaslit and abandoned by most of society. The space will strive to be collaborative and will explicitly center wisdom and experiences of high-risk people. Together, we will seek spiritual resources and practices of solidarity & survival to help us weather this time and its existential impact.

Who is the COVID Spiritual Practice Group for?

– High-risk people
– Anyone who has high-risk people in their intimate circle (whatever that means to you)
– Disabled people who are not high-risk but see themselves in communal solidarity with high-risk people

Do you aspire to be a better ally to disabled/chronically ill people? Has the pandemic made you realize that you need to learn more about disability justice? Maybe you’ve been hearing about DJTC’s ongoing “Disability Justice as Spiritual Text” workshop — which is aimed at disabled people — but you identify as an ally, and you were sad to miss the fun?

Now DJTC has something for you. And it’s coming at just the right time, as we move through Elul, a period of individual and communal accountability, in the midst of an ongoing global pandemic that has dramatically underscored our society’s ableism. In this three-session series, we will deepen our understanding of disability justice, and also expand our understanding of “spiritual text,” by seeking the Torah — animating teachings — inherent in the work of a selection of disability justice leaders. Texts will be in English and from a variety of disabled writers and activists.

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