Jennifer Bittner, Gateways Parent
Sweet Sounds Honoree

Rachel and Noah, thank you for your introduction.  Thank you Gateways for honoring Erik and me today.  I am proud of what Gateways has accomplished for the children, the future of our Jewish community.

As you heard, Erik and I came to this work by way of our experiences with our own children.  Having a child with disabilities meant doctors’ appointments, Early Intervention, and uncertainty.  We struggled to understand diagnoses and get the best care, all the while wondering what the future would bring.  Yet while the public schools mandated education for children with disabilities, the landscape in the Jewish community 12 years ago was bleak.  I heard stories of children whose families celebrated Shabbat-- but whose special child watched TV in the basement. Of families whose children attended religious or day school—except for the one who had no place to go. When our oldest son turned three, the traditional age when children begin to study, we found there was no place for him either.

Because of my own positive experience with Jewish education which I discussed previously, I couldn’t fathom raising children who wouldn’t have access to religious education of their own.  Furthermore, I couldn’t accept that some children attended Hebrew or Day School, while others
were denied.  My experience with the Newton Public Schools taught me that children with disabilities could be educated successfully.  I knew that in Chicago, Keshet ran a supplemental Hebrew school for children with disabilities and had a presence in almost all area day schools.  At our shul, Congregation Shaarei Tefillah in Newton, we had several Chicago natives who knew the Keshet model and wanted to reproduce it here.  With the support of Rabbi Benjamin Samuels and several others, Erik and I organized a conference about special needs and the Jewish community in June 1998.  The response was overwhelming:  250 Rabbis, educators and parents came together to affirm that children in the Jewish community could and should be educated.

At that conference we learned that there were many families who had experienced the same problems we had in finding a classroom for their child with disabilities. From the very beginning the message from these families was clear:  they wanted a school so that their children could have access to the same education as their siblings.  A committee began to meet in our home and plan the organization which would become Etgar L’Noar.  And the Jewish community grabbed hold and responded with their support.  In December 1999 we opened our first classroom.  Never could I have imagined that this school of 10 students would eventually grow to become the Gateways program with its teen volunteers, skilled professionals and staff, and its diversity of students. Today, as you have heard, Gateways educates children along the entire spectrum of ability, in settings from separate to inclusive, from Hebrew Schools to day schools.

One of the most gratifying elements of Gateways is that parents know they are not alone.  We share each other’s struggles and joys, we see each other’s children grow from preschool to Bar Mitzvah, and beyond.  When Etgar L’Noar began, the idea of a school for Jewish children with disabilities was new, now Gateways is something that every family can count on.  When I see parents dropping their children off on Sunday morning, or when students with learning challenges succeed in the Jewish day schools, I marvel at the progress we have made as an organization and as a Jewish community.  Gateways is here for these children and their families, they need never know the isolation that families felt before these services existed.

I would like to thank everyone who has helped Gateways grow and succeed.  Special thanks to my parents, Jean and Sol Berg, who taught me never to give up.  And to our children, thank you for teaching me that every child deserves an education.

"Kol Yisrael Arevim Zeh BaZeh: All Israel is responsible for one another."
May we continue to work together for the good of the special children among us and for the good of K’lal Yisrael.