Guidance and Support
- Employment readiness
- Self advocacy and negotiation
- Dating, marriage, and parenting
- Working with helping professionals
- Home and personal management
- Mobility and travel
- Handling pejorative attitudes towards disability
Accessing Resources
Finding Resources
One product or service can dramatically expand your abilities and make it possible to lead the life you wish. Yad HaChazakah-JDEC staff can work with you to identify and access resources for:
A Yad HaChazakah-JDEC staffer will follow up with you to assure that the service or product meets your needs or that the application process for benefits is going smoothly.
Advocacy and Mediation
Sometimes you can find it too difficult to get the services, products, or benefits that a vendor or agency offers. Obtaining reasonable disability access to community events and establishments can also be challenging. When appropriate and as you request, we will advocate and mediate on your behalf or refer you to the proper agency to help you.
Contact Us
To find out about resources that might help you or to request 
assistance in advocating for and negotiating possible solutions, please email info@yadempowers.org or call 646-723-3955.
Learning from Others
Learning Sessions
Many of us with disabilities or ongoing conditions want to better understand ourselves, our purpose, and our responsibilities within the context of Jewish texts and tradition. Some of us also want to know how disability access, opportunity, and inclusiveness should be factored into our decisions about building design, program planning, employment, and goods and services delivery – in line with Torah analysis.
”Perspectives on Disability and Illness in Jewish Law and Lore” Monthly Learning Sessions co-sponsored by NISHMA is a teleconferencing class that we are planning. It will be led by Rabbi Benjamin Hecht, founding director of Nishma and the primary rabbinic adviser for Yad HaChazakah-JDEC. You are invited to join this learning session, whether or not you have a disability or health condition.
Please Email Torah@yadempowers.org or contact Mr. Yisroel Lacks, LCSW at 917-345-6515 to let us know that you are interested. Let us know your questions. We will inform you about the starting date and ways you may connect to the learning group from your location.
Topical Workshops
Yad HaChazakah-JDEC convenes workshops on many topics pertaining to disability. These sessions provide important information or help people to develop their skills, such as self advocacy and negotiation. Workshops can be held in wheelchair accessible venues, by phone, or via internet technology.
Our organization is committed to providing reasonable disability-related program accommodations, such as large print or sign language interpreters upon request and as our capacities allow. We offer separate seating for men and women when it is the standard for a community.
To receive updates about upcoming events, click the "Stay Connected - Get Involved" button below and complete and submit the form. We can notify you by email about events pertaining to people with disabilities and the families. Also, we will regularly post information on this website about workshops held by other agencies in addition to those organized or sponsored by Yad HaChazakah-JDEC.
Are you from a business, organization, yeshiva, day school, or another type of group that is located in or does a good amount of work with Jewish communities? Staff at Yad HaChazakah-JDEC can arrange presentations at your location for your cadre. We can help you better understand, work with, and meet the needs of your customers, employees, congregants, and students with disabilities. Please contact us at 646-723-3955 or email access@yadempowers.org