As the Jewish people begin to celebrate Hanukkah, it is pivotal to remember the importance of honoring each and every Jewish person for the light of the Hanukkah menorah symbolizes the Jewish soul throughout the generations. At this time of year, we recall that many Jews have been adversely affected due to the 2,000-year-long Jewish Diaspora and the war against terror that Israel has been fighting since the day the nation was born.
During the Jewish Diaspora, many Jews were massacred, raped, forced to change their religion, and experienced various levels of persecution merely because they were part of a different faith. And today in Israel, far too many have fallen victim to acts of terrorism merely because they are Jewish Israelis.
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Due to the history of oppression experienced by the Jewish people, too many people among us are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and a series of other disabilities. But throughout our history, no matter how much our enemies tried to impair us, we always have had Maccabees who fight for our right to live in dignity as Jewish people.
In honor of Hanukkah, it is of pivotal importance to remember the plight of disabled children in Israel and to fight for their right to live dignified lives. After all, disabled Israelis, who became physically and mentally impaired in the context of Israel's war against terrorism or merely because they were not born fortunate, deserve our empathy and love for they are suffering on a daily basis due to something that is not their fault.
This is why it is of pivotal importance that we do everything in our power in order to provide disabled Israeli children with an equal chance to grow. Who knows? Perhaps one day like the ugly duckling, these children despite their disabilities, will grow up to be beautiful swans, like Moses (a Jewish prophet with a speaking impairment), Hellen Keller (blind and deaf author), Hans Christian Anderson (a children's author on the autism spectrum), Emily Dickenson (an autism spectrum poet), and Albert Einstein (an autism spectrum scientist).
Providing equality for the disabled is why the ILAI Fund established the Malachi Camp in Kiryat Gat. The idea for the Malachi Camp originated with Tamar, who is the sister of a disabled child that the ILAI Fund helped. She felt that children with disabilities should be given an equal opportunity to enjoy their summer vacation. For Albert Shatliel, the Founder of the ILAI Fund, the name of the camp was a miracle for his daughter is also named Malachi (Angelic).
Just as he struggled for eight years to have his daughter Malachi, a healthy and smart girl, the Malachi Camp performs the miracle of offering disabled children the opportunity to enjoy their summer in the same manner that normal Israeli children do. According to Shatliel, if it was not for this camp, these children would have spent their summer neglected at home for the regular summer camps are not equipped to accept these children.
Given recent events, these children badly needed a summer getaway for earlier this year, Kiryat Gat was under a barrage of rocket fire. It is a traumatic experience for any child to live in the rocket zone. However, for disabled children it is ten times worse, for a child in a wheelchair cannot move as quickly to a bomb shelter as a normal child can.
Furthermore, children with autism react very poorly to the loud noises produced by Qassam rocket fire.
At the Malachi Camp, these special children were given the opportunity to play games, go horseback riding, eat pizza, and visit animals at the zoo. While all of these activities are important for normal children, these types of activities are even more crucial for handicapped or autistic children, who often find that they have a greater potential to bond with animals than people. Horseback riding, in particular, has been found to calm them and assist them with paying attention in school. According to Shatliel, horses also help them learn to speak.
Shatliel established the ILAI Fund together with his wife Yael in order to help the neediest families in Israel including many ultra-Orthodox families that don't have the financial means to pay for services for their disabled children and single-mother families, whose fathers abandoned their disabled children. According to Shatliel, these mothers are often in a very difficult situation for they can't work due to their children's disability. Within the last 15 years, over 1,200 children with all kind of special needs have been helped and supported by the NGO.
Albert and Yael Shatliel named the ILAI Fund at 2005 after their eldest son right after he was born because they believe having a beautiful healthy child is a gift from God, and they wanted to help other children to learn to enjoy everything that their son does.
As Robert M. Hensel once said, "There is no greater disability in society than our inability to see a person as more." It is time for everyone to see a disabled person as more.
