Shabbat will mark awareness of Jewish disabilities efforts

The Orangetown Jewish Center will mark Jewish Disabilities Awareness Shabbat, working with the Jewish National Fund, on Saturday, February 3, with services that begin at 9 a.m. The morning features guest speaker Avnet Kleiner, JNF’s U.S. director of development for ALEH Negev, a rehabilitation village that provides medical and therapeutic care for people with severe disabilities. On their yearly mitzvah missions, OCJ members have worked on JNF projects in Israel.

One of JNF’s newest projects was the biblical gardens at Lotem’s ecological farm in Emek HaShalom, dedicated in December 2017 as a gift by Susan and Ben Gutmann of Norwood in memory of their parents. Ben Gutmann is JNF’s major gifts chair and was JNF 2017 national conference co-chair. Lotem — Making Nature Accessible is the leading organization in Israel that offers accessible hikes and educational nature activities around the country to children and adults with special needs.

The OJC is at 8 Independence Ave. For more information, call (845) 359-5920, or go to www.theojc.org.