Disability Wisdom As Soul Care
With Rabbi Lauren Tuchman and Kohenet Dr. Harriette Wimms
Disability Wisdom as Soul Care (DWASC) is a Mussar va’ad/study group that centers disabled experiences and equips participants with Jewish spiritual wisdom and tools for personal and spiritual development, builds much-needed community, and helps support anti-ableism justice work.
We approach learning from a disability wisdom perspective and honor Torah found in classic Jewish texts and in those from Jews and others with disabilities. We believe spiritual wisdom can be found in many places and through many voices, and honor that our spiritual practice is inseparable from our embodied experiences. In this cohort, we will bring our full selves to developing our spiritual practice together as we create a holy container for joy, practice, and growth through Mussar (applied Jewish wisdom) and Chassidut (applied Jewish Mysticism).
Interested in joining?
We’re excited to share that applications are now open for the next phase of Disability Wisdom as Soul Care. This fall, Kirva will host two new DWASC cohorts as part of a three-year expansion of the program. This next chapter will deepen participants’ learning while supporting the leadership development of those who may go on to facilitate DWASC—bringing disability wisdom, spiritual practice, and community to more people and places.
Apply by June 15th.
The work of more deeply developing the inner and spiritual lives of Jews with disabilities is essential to providing care, offering repair, and building a more inclusive and anti-ableist community.
We Are Growing
Kirva is honored to be a recipient of Covenant’s 2026 Signature Grant to grow this vital work. With Covenant’s generous support, alongside funding from the Jewish Liberation Fund and dedicated individual donors, we will expand DWASC over the next three years by developing a teacher training program that equips facilitators with disabilities to bring this curriculum to Jewish communities across North America. We hope you'll join us in this next chapter.
Get Trained to Lead this Program
For those with disabilities or chronic illness who feel called to teach and facilitate this work. Through the facilitator training, participants deepen their own spiritual practice while learning to teach and hold this program with care, skill, and integrity—building capacity to bring DWASC to local or digital communities that could benefit from this work.
Bring this Program to Your Community
For community members, organizers, clergy, or leaders—whether or not you identify as someone with a disability or chronic illness—who want to help bring Disability Wisdom as Soul Care to a synagogue, organization, local, or digital network. In this role, participants support the vision and help steward the program in their community, even if they are not facilitating it themselves.
Join A Cohort
For those with disabilities or chronic illness, or who are exploring that identification for themselves, or who want to experience DWASC as participants. Cohorts offer space for connection, learning, healing, and nourishment through disability wisdom and Jewish spiritual practice. Participants are held in a space that centers personal and collective growth within a supportive learning community. Cohorts will be more widely available in 2027 and 2028.
Our Theory of Change
By creating access points to this area of Torah and applied spiritual practice, Disability Wisdom as Soul Care teaches the relevance of Torah-based values and ideas, how to apply them to accessibility and inclusion advocacy, and cultivates accessible community around Jewish learning. Centering Jews with disabilities while welcoming all who are drawn to this work, the program affirms that disability wisdom holds essential insight for Jewish life—and that everyone benefits when all voices are honored as Torah. Through cultivating spaces for learning, healing, and connection, this program supports individuals in showing up as their full selves—more resourced, more connected, and better equipped to build the world we want to live in.
Meet Rabbi Lauren
Rabbi Lauren Tuchman is a sought-after speaker, spiritual leader, and educator ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2018. Based in the Washington, D.C. area, she teaches, consults, and leads workshops across North America on disability access and inclusion, bringing a deep commitment to radical inclusivity and the belief that anyone can take hold of Torah and contribute their unique insights. An alum of the SVARA Kollel and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s Clergy Leadership Program, Rabbi Tuchman is a teacher in multiple Jewish mindfulness and meditation communities and is completing advanced training in Jewish contemplative practice. In 2024, she launched Disability Wisdom As Soul Care in partnership with Kirva, and she writes the Contemplative Torah Substack.
Meet Kohenet Dr. Harriette Wimms
Kohenet Dr. Harriette is a community convener, Jewish professional, spiritual ritualist, lecturer, and social justice advocate for people marginalized by power and oppression. She is a Maryland licensed clinical psychologist and founder and clinical director of The Village Family Support Center of Baltimore, where she provides child and family therapy offerings, parent support and training, community organizing, educational advocacy, clinical supervision and continuing education training. Dr. Harriette has received specialized training in Community/Social and Developmental Psychology. She has also completed birth and postpartum doula, end-of-life doula, and grief training and provides these services to families and within BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities. Kohenet Dr. Harriette is the founder and executive director of the Jews of Color Mishpacha Project, and the Community Relationship and Jews of Color Engagement Steward at Third Space at Shaarei Tfiloh. K’ Harriette is a Schusterman fellow, a Selah fellow, and a contract trainer for Keshet. She is most proud of being mother to her 21-year-old daughter. She enjoys gardening, sipping cups of tea in the morning, giving hugs, and listening to music.
Thank you to Our Funders
This program is made possible thanks to generous funding from the Covenant Foundation, the Amy Adina Schulman Fund, and the Jewish Liberation Fund.
We are actively seeking funding for the growth of this program. If you'd like to donate any amount towards this program, please be in touch with Sam.
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