Access Israel, Founder

Founder's Award

 

Israeli combat helicopter pilot, Lieutenant-Colonel Yuval Wagner became a quadriplegic paralyzed neck down at the age of 22 after sustaining injuries due to a technical helicopter crash in 1987 while serving in the Israeli Air Force. Following a long rehabilitation, Yuval returned to the Air Force, completed his degree in Business Management, started a family, and set out to better the lives of people with disabilities.

 

Yuval, recognized that the lack of accessibility in Israel limited people with disabilities from fully enjoying meaningful and independent normal lives. In response, Yuval approached Israel President Weitzman on this challenge who ordered Yuval to found Access Israel in 1999 as the first and only non-profit in his country dedicated to making Israel fully accessible for all kinds of disabilities in all areas of life and by that improving the quality of life of people with disabilities. For 24 years, Access Israel has focused on making Israel a country in which people with disabilities are integrated into society with dignity, have equal rights, and can live with maximum independence. Access Israel has dramatically improved the accessibility for hundreds of thousands of people in Israel by promoting awareness of the importance of accessibility and inclusion, legislating accessibility laws and regulations, promoting the implementation of accessibility by the different various government ministries, promoting accessible environments and public services by consulting and training with innovative impacting models.

 

Now, as technology becomes even more ingrained in our lives, Yuval is determined to encourage Israel and the world to make our digital universe accessible for people with all kinds of disabilities too through Project POSSIBLE!

BACK TO TOP
 

RABBI HASKEL LOOKSTEIN

Lifetime Humanitarian Award

 

Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, now Emeritus, has been the Rabbi of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun since 1958 and Principal, now Emeritus, of the Ramaz School since 1966. He served as the Joseph H. Lookstein Professor of Homiletics at Yeshiva University where he taught from 1979 to 2018. He also serves as a Vice President of the Beth Din of America. He is a member of the Board of Met Council.

 

Rabbi Lookstein has served as President of the New York Board of Rabbis, Chairman of the National Rabbinic Cabinet of UJA, Chairman of the New York Conference on Soviet Jewry, and President of the Synagogue Council of America. He also was a Commissioner on the New York City Human Rights Commission.

 

A graduate of Ramaz School ’49, Rabbi Lookstein received his B.A. from Columbia College, his Master’s Degree in Medieval Jewish History, and his PhD in Modern Jewish History from the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Yeshiva University. He was ordained by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Dr. Samuel Belkin as a graduate of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary in 1958. Married to Audrey in 1959, the Looksteins are blessed with eight children, sixteen grandchildren (and four grandchildren-in-law), and thirteen great-grandchildren.

 

The Rabbi’s doctoral dissertation was published in 1985 under the title Were We Our Brothers’ Keepers: The Public Response of American Jews to the Holocaust 1938-1944. Most recently, his biography, authored by Dr. Raphael Medoff, entitled Rav Chesed, was published by Ktav Publishing Company. The rabbi's example of being responsible for our brothers and sisters and living a life of chesed (kindness) has and continues to inspire the world.

 

In his non-professional life, he is a rabid rooter for the Mets, Giants, Knicks, and Rangers in addition to being an avid tennis player.

BACK TO TOP
 

HARRIET P. SCHLEIFER

Lifetime Visionary Award

 

Harriet P. Schleifer is the Chair-Elect of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, immediate past President of AJC, past national Chair of Project Interchange and a past President of the AJC Westchester/Fairfield regional office.

 

Harriet practiced education law and has extensive professional and personal experience representing students with special needs. She serves on the Executive Committee of Chapel Haven, Inc., a residential school and organization whose mission is to provide lifelong individualized services for people with developmental and social disabilities, empowering them to live independent and self-determined lives.

 

She also serves as a Trustee of Cornell University, as Secretary of The Jewish Museum, on the board of Plaza Jewish Community Chapel, Inc., and a member of the Board of Trustees of The Washington Institute on Near East Policy. Harriet is a past President of her synagogue, Bet Torah in Mt. Kisco, NY and for many years held leadership positions in the Chappaqua school district PTA, UJA-Federation Westchester area, and in numerous other communal and service organizations.

 

Harriet received her undergraduate degree from Cornell University, two graduate degrees in education from the University of Virginia and her law degree from St. John’s University.

 

She is happily married to Len Schleifer, the proud mother of Adam (Nicole) and David.

BACK TO TOP

COMMISSIONER CHRISTINA CURRY

Distinguished Service Award

 

The Honorable Christina Curry was appointed Commissioner of the New York City Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities by Mayor Adams in August 2022. She began her career in rehabilitation as an advocate for the minority Deaf, Hard of Hearing communities at the Lexington Center for the Deaf. There, she expanded into the mental health field as a mental health counselor working with Deaf, Hard of Hearing domestic violence victims and survivors through the Barrier Free Living Domestic Violence Non-Residential Program. On the weekends, Curry would also work with the minority disabled community at Community Counseling and Mediation, a Brooklyn outpatient mental health facility.

 

Nationally, Curry has served on subcommittees attached to the National Council of Independent Living and the National Council on Disability.

 

Statewide, Curry has served on the New York State HIV Advisory Board, the New York State HIV Planning and Prevention Board, and the New York State Independent Living Council Committee. Curry was appointed by former New York Governor David Paterson onto the Executive Board of the New York State Commission for the Blind and the Interagency Council for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Deaf-Blind.

 

Locally, Curry has participated in the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities/Disability Mentoring Day and has served on the Office of Emergency Management's Special Needs Advisory Committee and the Disability Network of New York City.

 

Originally from the Bronx, Curry worked in Harlem for 20+ years, and considers it her second home. She served on Community Board 10; on the Executive, Personnel, Health and Human Services, LGBTQ Task Force; and on Public Safety Committees. Curry joined the Harlem Independent Living Center (HILC), in 1999 as program director, before being promoted to executive director in 2001.

 

While at HILC, Curry provided disability/deafness sensitivity trainings to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, various hospitals within the NYC Health + Hospitals Corporation, and at the Mt. Sinai Continuum. Curry also provided training at domestic violence agencies and shelters, local police precincts, community-based organizations, and schools.

 

Additionally, Curry has worked with FEMA in Puerto Rico and with New York City Emergency Management on emergency preparedness in disabled/deaf communities.

 

Curry has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Education from Hunter College - City University of New York; a Master of Arts degree in Deafness Rehabilitation from New York University; and a Master of Public Administration degree in Emergency Management and Disaster Preparedness from Metropolitan College of New York.

BACK TO TOP
 

 

GOOGLE

Technology Award

 

Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Google has committed to making accessibility a core consideration from the earliest stages of product design through release, incorporating the experiences of people with disabilities from the very beginning. By creating technology by and with people with disabilities, we can identify ways to be truly helpful to the over 1 billion people in the world who have a disability. Technology can do a lot to break down barriers. As examples, Google has done research to make speech recognition more accessible for people with neurological conditions, developed technologies using AI to label millions of images that were previously inaccessible to people who use screen readers, and made it easier to identify over 15 million wheelchair-accessible places in Google Maps. This quote from Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, captures our commitment well: "When we say we want to build for everyone – we mean it. Accessibility is written into our mission statement and is core to our values as a company. We don’t think a problem is solved until we’ve solved it for everyone. Technology’s great promise is to give everyone the same power to achieve their goals. As long as there are barriers for some, there’s still work to be done."

BACK TO TOP

COLTON ROBINSON

Young Leadership Award

 

Colton Robinson’s parents learned during his routine 20-week ultrasound that he had Spina Bifida and hydrocephalus. It was during that time that they had to learn all about this birth defect and what exactly Colton’s future would be like. Scared and confused, they visited a neurosurgeon that was close to the family to gather answers. It was during that time that this doctor informed Colton’s parents that children with Spina bifida are some of the happiest children he has ever met.

 

Colton was born on June 3, 2009, to his parents, Ashley and Mark, and his sister, Kadyn. He almost immediately went into surgery in less than 24 hours to close the opening in his back and was in the NICU for a little less than 2 weeks.

 

Fast forward a couple of years and Colton was thriving thanks to his medical team, therapists, and loved ones. Colton has been a patient at Shriners Hospital for Children in Springfield since he was 2 years old. The first time he was exposed to being an advocate (and model) was at 3 years old when he was asked to be the face of an annual fundraiser that Dunkin Donuts held to benefit Shriners hospitals. He continued supporting multiple fundraising events over the years and is considered a “Patient Advocate” for Shriners Hospital of New England.

 

When Colton was 4 years old his mother entered him into a “Cutest Kid Contest” for Parents Magazine after being told by an agent that companies just don’t request children with disabilities to represent their brand. Colton was then chosen to be 1 of 10 children out of hundreds of thousands of children that had been entered. It was during that time that Colton was able to meet and network with some amazing people in the industry. Even though he wasn’t chosen as the cover model winner, he was a winner in his parents' eyes because he was able to represent many that have felt not represented.

 

After that contest, a woman he met during the shoot reached out to a modeling agency specializing in representing children. He was signed and was the first child model to be in that agency's diversity division in 2016. After being signed to Stellar NYC, he had many cool opportunities, such as being the first child to use a wheelchair in New York Fashion Week and modeling for multiple different toy and clothing companies. Colton also worked with the Runway of Dreams foundation during this time and was one of the first children to represent adaptable clothing for Tommy Hilfiger.

 

Colton developed a good working relationship with Target and was asked to model for them on quite a few occasions. He always loved going into his local store and seeing his picture displayed.

 

One day, his mother was scrolling through Facebook and came across a photo of a young boy that also uses a wheelchair staring up at Colton’s picture at their local Target store. Ashley responded to the mother of the young boy that posted the picture and they started messaging back and forth. Meanwhile, the photo of the boys started to go viral and people all over the world were touched by this beautiful photo. Next thing you know, the boys were in a whirlwind of media interviews! The Kelly Clarkson Show then got word of this photo that represented diversity, representation, and inclusion. The boys and their families were then flown out to Los Angeles to meet each other and be on the show.

 

Shortly, after the show was filmed the entire country went into lockdown due to COVID. During the first couple of days of the lockdown, Colton came up with the idea to put a “Daily quote” on all his social media platforms to bring a smile and positivity to all his followers during such an uncertain time. He also loves to show others the importance of inclusion and being represented through his social media platforms.

 

During his free time, Colton loves to play wheelchair basketball, play with his dogs, read about history, and learn about his ancestry. Colton continues to be a patient advocate for Shriners and represents diversity and inclusion through his modeling and social media platforms. Colton will be entering high school in the fall and his goal is to go to college to study history and become a historian.

BACK TO TOP