Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
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77 MARCH 2020 Getting more disabled actors onscreen is also "an issue of fairness," says Ruderman. "Actors with disabilities are not given the opportunity to even audition, and that's why we have taken several steps, like asking studios to pledge to open their auditions to actors with disabilities," he says. CBS was the first entertainment company to sign the Ruderman Family Foundation's audition pledge, and Ruderman says they're in talks with others as well. Some of the Foundation's other entertainment-related disability inclusion work includes partnering with the Sundance Film Festival to widen disabled accessibility for the event, as well as sending an open letter—signed by dozens of stars such as Edward Norton, Bryan Cranston, Ali Stroker, and Mark Ruffalo—to entertainment executives calling for inclusion of actors with disabilities. Not all of the Ruderman Family Foundation's disability inclusion work involves the entertainment industry, though. It work is wide-reaching, focusing on disability rights in every facet of society, like housing, work, and school, and several of its initiatives are centered on organizations on the North Shore. Jay Ruderman grew up in Lynnfield, worked in Salem politics, and served as assistant district attorney in Salem. "We're from the North Shore and have invested for years in the North Shore," he says. The Foundation is also "guided by [its] Jewish values," according to its mission statement, and among its North Shore endeavors is with partnering with the Jewish Community Center of the North Shore in Marblehead to provide summer camp experiences for campers and staff with and without disabilities, as well as working with the Lappin Foundation in Salem so that young people with disabilities could participate in its "Youth to Israel Adventure." The Epstein Hillel School in Marblehead also participates in the Morton E. Ruderman Inclusion Scholarship Fund. Established in 2015, the fund makes Jewish day schools more accessible and affordable for children with disabilities. There's also the Ruderman Synagogue Inclusion Project, which aims to support synagogues in making themselves accessible to people with all abilities through work like printing books with larger fonts, adding adjustable-height Torah tables, embracing hearing loop technologies, and having rabbis preach inclusiveness. These efforts have branched out to other faiths as well. Although society has made some progress in disability inclusion, Ruderman says that people often still see hiring disabled actors or making disability accommodations "as charity, not as a right." Until that changes, the Ruderman Family Foundation's work will continue. "Changing attitudes is really, really difficult, but the way that we've gone about it is constantly being present and being out in the media and making it an issue," Ruderman says. "We don't stay quiet." POOLS • HOT TUBS • SAUNAS 978 - 887 - 2424 Route One, Topsfield CALL NOW for FREE Site Evaluation! $1,000 OFF PRESEASON SALES! Route One, Topsfield