Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Jewish Groups Ask Senate To Stop Bill Weakening Americans With Disabilities Act

(JTA) — Fifty-five national Jewish organizations have called on the U.S. Senate to oppose legislation that would weaken the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The organizations sent a letter, organized by the Jewish Federations of North America, to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., opposing the Americans with Disabilities Act Education and Reform Act. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the legislation in February in a 225-192 vote.

The Americans with Disabilities Act has enabled the disabled more access to housing, education, public and private spaces and businesses, and public transit.

Under the reform measure being considered, individuals with disabilities who encounter barriers in public accommodations would need to first notify the business of the issue and observe a waiting period before seeking legal recourse – a lengthier process than under the current law.

The 55 Jewish organizations that signed the letter represent the main religious streams, rabbinical and cantorial organizations, those that focus on disability inclusion, and others promoting social justice and civil rights, social service networks, and groups working with young people and older adults.

“As Jews, we are acutely aware of our obligation to create a more inclusive society and our responsibility to fight against policies that would make life more difficult for people with disabilities,” said William Daroff, the senior vice president for public policy for Jewish Federations of North America and the director of its Washington office. “We are thrilled that so many of our national partners in the Jewish community understand the importance of inclusion and the necessity in protecting these fundamental civil rights.”

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.