AJPA - Member public profile

Howard Blas currently serves as senior advisor to the National Ramah Tikvah Network of the National Ramah Commission (https://www.campramah.org/tikvah-programs). Howard previously served as director of the Tikvah Network and previously as director of the Tikvah Program at Camp Ramah in New England for 15 years and of the Tikvah Program at Ramah NorCal for 5 years. Howard has led a dozen disabilities trips to Israel including many Birthright trips. Howard has climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro with Access Israel and a delegation which included four people with paraplegia and has traveled across the United States, visiting innovative jobs sites and training programs for people with disabilities (https://howardblas.com/disabilities/job-sites/). Howard is a board member of FIN, the Faith Inclusion Network.

Howard, a social worker and special education teacher by training, teaches Jewish Studies and bar/bat mitzvah to students with a range of disabilities and “special circumstances. Howard has 40 years of experience working with families and students in envisioning and preparing for a wide-range of b’nai mitzvahs, from traditional to creative.

Howard writes regularly for many Jewish publications including the Jerusalem Post, Chabad.org, JNS (Jewish News Syndicate), ejewishphilanthropy, and Sight Line (Covenant Foundation). Howard received the S’fatai Tiftakh Award from Boston Hebrew College’s Center for Jewish Special Education in 2012 and the 2013 Covenant Award for Excellence in Jewish Education.

Howard recently co-founded Jewish Disability Inclusin News (JDIN) https://jewishdisabilityinclusionnews.substack.com/ and is the co-author of the forthcoming book, A Different Spirit: Creating Meaningful B’nai Mitzvah For Children with Disabilities (Behrman House, 2026)

Favorite topics to write about

sports (especially Israel tennis, baseball, soccer), music, culture, disabilities, parenting; Israel; human interest, kosher food industry

Links to some of your recent stories

all articles are at https://howardblas.com/published-articles/.

Media outlets that run your work

Jerusalem Post, Chabad.org, JNS,org

Anything else you would like editors to know about you

Received first Rockower Award in 2021 and has proudly been a regular recipient! Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/howard.blas
Twitter: @howardblas

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Phone: 480-403-4602
Fax: 480-935-5270
Email: info@ajpa.org

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American jewish press association