O pinion
Beyond Inclusion — The Jewish
Community Acts to Advance
Disability Policy
BY AARON KAUFMAN
WHEN I WAS born with cere-
bral palsy, my parents knew
that I would encounter obsta-
cles that neither they nor my
peers had to navigate. Aside
from the frustration that inev-
itably results from navigating
an inaccessible world, having
a visible disability means I also
feel a constant need to prove
myself and added pressure to
excel and disprove societal
biases about people with dis-
abilities. I felt this pressure at
school, I feel it now at work,
at the theater and even on my
weekly trips to the grocery
store, where I am met with
averted eyes and looks of pity.

However, living with a
disability has also helped me
channel this frustration into
a fruitful career at the Jewish
Federations of North America
(JFNA), where I help lead the
Jewish community’s efforts to
advocate for and with people
with disabilities — including
our annual Jewish Disability
Advocacy Day, where Jews
with disabilities and our allies
converge on Capitol Hill.

This event, which brings
together professional and lay
volunteers from across the
Jewish Federation system and
beyond, is one crucial way of
ensuring that we don’t just talk
about disability acceptance and
inclusion in our places of wor-
ship or inside the Jewish com-
munity. Instead, we actively lift
our voices and fight for change.

At this year’s Jewish Disability
Advocacy Day on Feb. 26, advo-
cates urged Congress to pass two
key bills that will help disabled
Americans live independent
lives without fear of bankruptcy
due to medical costs.

One of the major reasons
why I’ve been successful as a
lobbyist and disability self-ad-
18 FEBRUARY 28, 2019
vocate is that I have a measure
of financial security thanks
to my Achieving a Better Life
Experience (ABLE) Account.

ABLE Accounts allow people
with disabilities and their fam-
ilies to establish tax-advantaged
savings and investment plans.

These accounts ease financial
strain for people with disabili-
ties by allowing them to with-
draw their own tax-free savings
to pay for costly disability-re-
lated expenses. Thanks to my
ABLE Account, I have money
set aside for disability-related
expenses, such as mobility
devices and various therapies.

Currently, to be eligible for
an ABLE account, one must
receive a disability diagnosis
prior to age 26. While many
Americans, like myself, are
diagnosed with a disabil-
ity early in life, millions of
Americans with disabilities
are prevented from access-
ing this critical financial tool
because their diagnosis came
later in life. Due to this age
cutoff, adults who acquire their
disability later in life, such as
individuals with spinal cord
injuries, traumatic brain inju-
ries, Lou Gehrig’s disease, and
multiple sclerosis, are barred
from this essential program.

The ABLE Age Adjustment Act
(S. 817/H.R. 1874 in the last
Congress) would raise the age
cutoff to 46, ensuring that more
than 6 million Americans can
achieve financial stability and
access to essential disability-re-
lated health services.

For the past three years, I
have worked with disabil-
ity rights lobbyists, advocates
and self-advocates to urge
Congress to reauthorize the
bipartisan Money Follows the
Person (MFP) program, which
is in jeopardy. MFP is one of
the longest-running and most
successful demonstrations in
Medicaid. Thanks to this pro-
gram, more than 88,000 people
with physical and intellectual
disabilities, mental illness and
senior citizens in 47 states have
transitioned from institutional
settings back into home- and
community-based services. As a
result of MFP, thousands of par-
ticipants who need long-term
services and support can suc-
cessfully transition from insti-
tutions back to their own homes
and communities. Despite
its success, MFP expired in
September 2016, leaving states
scrambling to use their own
funds to continue these posi-
tive efforts to integrate seniors
and people with disabilities into
the community. The efforts of
the disability rights and advo-
cacy community have not gone
unnoticed. Last month, the
Medicaid Extenders Act of 2019
was signed into law. While a
good first step, this legislation
only extends MFP until March.

We must continue to advocate
for a long-term solution. This is
why we are focusing our energy
on advocating for the bipar-
tisan, bicameral EMPOWER
Care Act (S. 2227/H.R. 5306 in
the last Congress).

At the heart of these two
programs is a commitment
to caring for all members of
our community. To me, being
Jewish is about the bonds of
connection that help uplift all
members of our community —
and way beyond that. Jewish
Disability Advocacy Day will
demonstrate the power that
this community can have
when we think beyond aware-
ness and acceptance alone, and
work to make inclusion a real-
ity for millions more people
throughout the country. l
Aaron Kaufman is a senior
legislative associate at the Jewish
Federations of North America.

JEWISH EXPONENT
Flatow Continued from Page 16
Dec. 3 tweet, he wrote that it
was “absurd” that it “now tries
to defend Hamas & terrorism
by undermining a condemna-
tion of Hamas at the UN. It’s
time to speak the truth.” And
in a Dec. 11 op-ed on FoxNews.

com, Greenblatt wrote: “The
Palestinian Authority contin-
ues to reward terrorists and
their families and fails to con-
demn Palestinian terrorist
attacks against Israelis. It also
defends Hamas, an unrepen-
tant terrorist organization.”
Just last week, Greenblatt
tweeted to a P.A. spokesman:
“You’re doing nothing [for
peace]. You can’t claim to want
peace and also try to sabo-
tage the potential for an agree-
ment.” Greenblatt also accused
while battling against the evil
occupation, equals what?”
Yet U.S. envoys Greenblatt
and Kushner are on their way
back to the region in order to
tell Arab representatives about
“the economic portion of the
U.S. peace proposal for Israel and
the P.A. … which is expected
to include a combination of
aid and investment to help the
Palestinian people,” an unnamed
U.S. official told Reuters.

Translation: The Trump
plan includes the United States
and others pumping billions
of dollars into the corrupt
terrorist P.A. regime and the
Palestinian state that the plan
reportedly will propose to
establish. Talk about throwing
good money after bad.

The Trump administration needs to learn from its
predecessors’ mistakes, not repeat them.

Running after the Palestinians with armloads of
cash has never brought peace, and never will.

the Palestinian Authority of
wanting “only benefits and no
responsibilities” from its rela-
tionship with the United States.

Meanwhile, two congress-
men have just managed to pry
loose from the U.S. Government
Accountability Office a pre-
viously classified report on
schools in Palestinian Authority
areas. The 65-page report states
that the P.A. school curriculum
uses “militaristic and adversar-
ial imagery, and preaches the
values of resistance.”
Even math equations are
“problematic,” the report
found, citing math problems
based on the numbers of Arabs
allegedly killed by Israelis in
various conflicts. I guess that
would be something like: “One
glorious Palestinian martyr
viciously murdered by Israeli
Nazis while trying to liber-
ate Palestine, plus two heroic
Palestinian fighters savagely
slaughtered by Israeli criminals
One of the most reprehen-
sible images of the pre-Trump
Middle East “peace process”
years was that of then-Sec-
retary of State Madeleine
Albright taking off her high
heels so she could run after
Yasir Arafat down the hall-
way when he stalked out of the
negotiations over some trivi-
ality. John Kerry’s diplomatic
efforts, while not involving
high heels, followed the same
approach. And yielded the
same results.

The Trump administra-
tion needs to learn from its
predecessors’ mistakes, not
repeat them. Running after the
Palestinians with armloads of
cash has never brought peace,
and never will. l
Stephen M. Flatow, an attorney in
New Jersey, is the father of Alisa
Flatow, who was murdered in an
Iranian-sponsored Palestinian
terrorist attack in 1995.

JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



COMMUNITY PORTRAIT
A population study of Greater Philadelphia
L E ARNI NG A BOU T OUR
J E WI S H COM M U NI T Y
Understanding basic socio-economic, demographic and
public health trends across the region’s population is
essential to enhancing and targeting service delivery for
the most vulnerable and at-risk populations. The 2019
Jewish Community Portrait will provide an up-to-date picture
of the size and characteristics of Greater Philadelphia
communities, and examine key changes in the community
by county, which includes Bucks, Chester, Delaware,
Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties, and throughout
the region as a whole.

You may be selected so check your mail and look for
the Community Portrait logo.

Call 215.832.0863 or visit communityportrait.org
for more information.

JEWISHEXPONENT.COM JEWISH EXPONENT
FEBRUARY 28, 2019
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