For all of her professional life, Debby Graudenz has had a soft spot for people at risk.
Troubled teens, the learning disabled, the mentally ill, the emotionally disturbed all have found a friend in Graudenz.
Now, the Berkeley resident is taking on a new challenge, one that blends her lifelong love of Jews and Judaism with a passion for healing and justice.
Graudenz has been appointed director of Gateways to Community, a new program for Jews with disabilities, sponsored by Jewish Family and Children’s Services of the East Bay. Funded by the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, the program is the result of a three-year planning process to help Jews with disabilities participate fully in the cultural and religious life of the community.
Gateways to Community will work closely with the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay, local synagogues, Jewish community centers and other local Jewish institutions to help make their programs and facilities more accessible to people with physical and mental disabilities.
“Everyone I spoke with so far is very excited,” says Graudenz. “Each organization is different, but all are willing to make accommodations for disabled people.”
Those accommodations run the gamut from sensitivity training and accessibility assessments for synagogues, religious schools and community centers, to special-needs advocacy and support groups for adults with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities.
For Graudenz to succeed, she believes entrenched mindsets must be changed. “Maybe no one in a wheelchair comes to a particular synagogue because there’s no ramp,” she says. “Maybe there’s no amplification system for the hearing- impaired. What if the cantor faces the ark and not the congregation? We come in, raise awareness and hook up the synagogue with resources.”
Though the job appears daunting, tackling big-time challenges is nothing new for Graudenz. The daughter of two Shanghailanders — German Jews who sought refuge in Shanghai during World War II — Graudenz says she learned a lot about helping others from her father, Samuel, a retired Orthodox rabbi.
Raised in Seattle, Graudenz grew up devoted to Israel and the Jewish people. She spent eight years on Kibbutz Ketura, 25 miles north of Eilat, before returning to the States to earn her license as a marriage and family therapist. Twenty years later, she says of her role in the profession, “I’ve always been drawn to working with people the rest of society has marginalized.”
To that end, Graudenz has served many high-risk populations. In addition to her private practice, she spent three years at the Fred Finch Youth Center in Oakland, a residential treatment facility for severely emotionally disturbed teens. She helped public schools carry out their mandate to mainstream disabled students into the classroom, and she also ran a day treatment program for teenage girls on probation.
This wasn’t a mere 9-to-5 commitment for Graudenz but a real fundamental life path. Her own 10-year-old son is an adopted African American with a language-based learning disability.
In her Jewish life, Graudenz recently wrapped up a two-year tenure as president of her congregation, Netivot Shalom in Berkeley. “Being Jewish has always been a strong part of my identity,” she says, “and being a rabbi’s daughter, access to Judaism was always easy for me.” As a way of returning the favor, Graudenz faithfully still takes time each week to visit her ailing father in his San Francisco nursing home.
For now, her top priority is making sure Gateways to Community gets off to a good start. Having launched the program in January with a two-year grant, she’s excited about making an impact on behalf of fellow Jews who truly need an advocate.
“I feel like I’m making a difference,” she says. “A person with a disability is a person first, and when you help other people understand that, it makes things easier. I want to make ours the most accessible community we can.”