Judaism Unbound Episode 431: Disability Justice Torah Circle – Jess Belasco
Jess Belasco is the founder and director of The Disability Justice Torah Circle, a space in which Jews with disabilities can build community around Torah, engage Jewish text through a disability justice lens, and nurture and amplify their voices to impact the broader Jewish community. They join Lex Rofeberg and Dan Libenson for a conversation about what disability has to say about Torah and what Torah has to say about disability.
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[1] Belasco is the founder and director of the Disability Justice Torah Circle, housed at Svara: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva.
[2] Belasco refers to the social model of disability, which understands disability as socially constructed.
[3] Lex recommends listening to Episode 3: Exodus – Benay Lappe when Belasco talks about Benay Lappe’s crash theory as it relates to disability experience.
[4] Lex asks Belasco about DJTC’s COVID Spiritual Practice Group, which she mentions several times throughout the episode.
[5] Belasco recalls that they were moved to create the COVID Spiritual Practice Group after watching this YouTube video of people cheering on an airplane when the mask mandate was lifted.
[6] Belasco references, The Jewish Covid Resilience Network, another organization that she started.
