Orthodox Jewish Occupational Therapy Chavrusa

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The goals of the OJOTC are:
 
To provide a forum for personal and professional networking for Occupational Therapists and OT Students

To work with our professional organizations to help them meet the religious needs of our members when it comes to arranging and scheduling conferences, seminars and other opportunities for professional growth

 To provide a forum for our members and other OT's to discuss issues relating to practice of our profession and our religion

 To assist our members in dealing with conflicts that arise in the areas of Shabbat and Kashrut and similar religious matters

This is how we got started...
(as reported on the AOTA web site)
 

Sometimes, a chance meeting develops into something special.

 

That’s what happened on the first day of AOTA’s 2005 Conference in Long Beach for a group of Jewish Occupational Therapists.

 

A female OT from New York just happened to spot a man wearing a yarmulkah among the thousands roaming the floor of the convention center Exposition Hall.

 

She asked the man and his wife if they knew a place to buy kosher food for the Sabbath. Told the closest place was Los Angeles, 30 miles away, she seemed resigned to eating her canned tuna in her hotel room, until they invited her to share Sabbath dinner – that they were picking up that night in L.A. – in their hotel room.

 

An hour later, he spotted two other men wearing yarmulkahs in the Expo Hall crowd. They, too, were planning to eat in their hotel room.

 

“Why don’t we all eat together, and really celebrate the Sabbath?” was the question.

 

The real question was where to find the space.

 

The answer came from a Front Desk manager at the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel.

 

He offered a “board room”, scheduled to be vacant that Friday night.

 

The anticipation of a Sabbath meal together grew.  So did the number of Occupational Therapists.  By candle-lighting, the number was ten; they came from New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Haifa, Israel.  Somehow they had found each other. All were meeting for the first time.

 

Some brought their own food that they had planned to eat alone; For two and a half hours, everyone shared in this potluck-style dinner.  Everyone sang Sabbath songs.  Everyone shared professional experiences.  Everyone knew of other Occupational Therapists who would have come to this annual conference, if they knew they could gather together around a real Shabbat table.

 

By conference end on Sunday, they had their own organization, the Orthodox Jewish Occupational Therapy Caucus (OJOTC@Hotmail.com) , and plans to join together next year in Charlotte, North Carolina, with many times that number.