On a typical television soundstage, a loud bell alerts the cast and crew that filming is about to begin and they must be quiet. On the set of “As We See It,” a new series streaming on Amazon Prime, Elaine Hall made sure the producers gave the actors warning before the bell rang — and…
For much of my life, I’ve seen myself as a schlemiel: the endearing Yiddish word for a socially inept person living a life patched by blunders and awkwardness. From my teenage years through college, I believed what I saw as my incompetence and lack of grace were residues of a bad personality. As it turns…
Don’t look now, but Amy Schumer is treating a marginalized and misunderstood group with total respect. On Tuesday, the firebrand comic dropped her newest standup special, “Growing,” on Netflix. It contains risky material about how her husband Chris Fischer has an autism spectrum disorder. The choice to share his diagnosis was mutual, she says. And…
Selling cannabis edibles is hardly the typical job for anyone, let alone an Orthodox Jew. But that’s exactly what Shifra Klein, a mom of four and member of Los Angeles’s Ultra-Orthodox Lubavitch community, does. In fact, before she became a producer of kosher edibles with her company Mitzva Herbal Co., she used cannabis to treat…
(JTA) — A Hasidic woman comforting a distressed child was captured in heartwarming photos that quickly gained traction on social media. The photos show Chabad emissary Rochel Groner holding and comforting the young boy on a flight from Brussels to New York. About an hour into the flight on Friday, the young boy started crying…
In his Bar Mitzvah video, Adam Wolfond, a non-speaking autistic person who types to communicate, explores the story of Moses and the Golden Calf to ask: “Does the Torah book answer the reasons why I don’t talk?” Viewed as non-relational and unaware because of his autism label, Adam expresses his relationship to others, his environment…
Autism diagnoses in Israel have tripled in the past 10 years, but the spike is likely due to better tracking of autism symptoms, according to a Welfare Ministry report released Sunday. The report, which was released on World Autism Day, showed that in 2016 there were 14,269 Israelis diagnosed with autism, up from 3,949 in…
One night not long ago, Sharon’s nine-year-old son Yehuda was crying. But Yehuda couldn’t tell her what was wrong because he doesn’t speak — he has autism — and so he grew anxious. Finally, he used an iPad app for autistic children to indicate that he wanted to go to sleep. But in the future,…
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