In honor of the UN’s International Day for People with Disabilities, we bring you the moving story of Captain Yehonatan Cohen – an IDF officer who dutifully serves his country despite being physically disabled since birth.
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Despite his physical limitations, Cohen’s exceptional intellect and determination have allowed him to succeed. “My parents are people who didn’t give up on me along the way,” he says, joking that his use of the phrase “didn’t give up” may be an understatement. “They really taught me that I’m capable, and I grew up with that feeling.” At his parents’ insistence – and driven by a deep desire to integrate into Israeli society – Cohen attended high school with non-disabled students and graduated with honors.
For people with physical challenges, loneliness is the biggest challenge of all. The Inbar organization exists to address this need.
Haifa resident Liat Mansfeld, 37, is a social worker who counsels at-risk girls and teaches in Oranim College. Despite her impressive credentials, she has not found her soul mate through dating websites and matchmakers. Most likely, that’s because Mansfeld happens to be blind.
“People are very afraid of someone with differences,” she says.
She is one of about 40 Israeli singles who attend monthly events sponsored byInbar, a four-year-old national organization that creates opportunities for social integration and skills development for marriage between adults with disabilities.
“Israel is a very family-oriented society,” says Director Laurie Groner. “While society is increasingly welcoming to those with disabilities, the challenges of social inclusion they face grow exponentially as their able-bodied friends marry and settle into the routine of family life.”
Groner, a non-profits professional with training in marriage therapy, says as far as she knows there is nothing quite like Inbar in Israel or abroad.
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Such a beautiful and inspiring story. To read it in full follow the link. There is a beautiful video as well about one couple’s experience finding love but it is in Hebrew without English translation.
An Israeli NGO working under the radar has sent 70 tons of sanitation items, 670 tons of food, 300,000 dry meals, 20 tons of medications and post trauma care specialists to Syrian refugees since the start of the bloody civil war.
The NGO does not identify its members and is only known as IL4Syrians.
“The harsh reality in which the organization is operating is on behalf of the victims of [Syrian President Bashar] Assad’s atrocities, which demands us to carry out our activities below the radar and hide our identities. This is in order to protect the lives of team members and local contacts, and to ensure the flow of victims’ needs, such as food, medicine, and basic supplies,” a statement on the website reads.
The group is made up of 1200 volunteers. They include doctors, medical clowns, post trauma specialists (who train Syrian nurses and community workers to offer relief in the refugee camps), and every day people “who love their homeland and believe in a Jewish tradition and culture that values a compassionate, open-minded respect for the sanctity of human life and dignity.”
The NGO’s mission statement reads: “Nobody asks permission to kill. We do not ask permission to save lives.”
To read more about this inspiring organization, follow the link above!