One Man’s Judaism Launched His Career and a Book

The local Jewish man who co-founded the Jewish Grandparents Network less than a decade ago is launching one of his latest initiatives, Jewish Story Project, this October. And David Raphael continues to create more projects that reflect his deep connection to Judaism.

The Jewish Grandparents Network unfolded after a discussion with fellow Jewish educator, Lee M. Hendler, in 2017. From their combined experience in the Jewish community, they saw a huge gap: the Jewish communal world focused on young families but did not include grandparents in that picture.

They conducted the first national study of Jewish grandparents in 2019 in collaboration with 17 Jewish partner organizations. Since its inception, the organization has engaged grandparents, family members, professionals, and community leaders in a broad array of workshops, initiatives, seminars, and consultations.

Now Raphael is hoping to get the Jewish Story Project off the ground by piloting the initiative with Hillel at the University of Pennsylvania during its Family Weekend this October. “Students and visiting family members will be asked to share and record their Jewish stories and memories,” he explained.

According to its website (www.jewish-story-project.org), “the long-term vision of the Jewish Story Project is to collect 600,000 Jewish stories — one for each letter in the Torah — bringing to life a vivid picture of the tapestry that is Jewish life in the 21st century across North America, Europe, Israel, and wherever Jews are found globally.”

Even before the Jewish Story Project is totally off the ground, Raphael is hoping to start another initiative called Voices: The Jewish Story Project – Lost Tribes. With this project, Raphael wants to “capture, record, archive and learn from the stories of those who are on the periphery of Jewish life — lost or marginalized Jewish tribes such as those who are neurodiverse, deaf, blind, incarcerated and transgender individuals. The TheirStory.io platform will provide a robust platform that captures, transcribes, analyzes, edits and publishes audiovisual media.”

As Raphael pointed out, “One of the bedrocks of our Jewish tradition is welcoming the stranger. The commandment to welcome the stranger is mentioned 36 times in the Torah — more than any other commandment, even more than the commandment to love G-d. The Hebrew word, ‘ger,’ is most often translated as ‘stranger’ in English translations and commentaries of our sacred text. A more accurate translation might be a ‘sojourner’ or ‘alien’ — someone living among us who is different.”

Raphael believes “this is true of how many people perceive autistic individuals and others with developmental and physical differences. It is easy to view these members of our community as being alien — someone among us who is different. They may be non-verbal, run in circles, and hold their hands over their ears and scream. From the outside, these behaviors may seem bewildering and frightening.”

The Lost Tribes project not only combines Raphael’s deep relationship with Judaism, but also his relationship with his son, Jacob. The two recently co-authored a book entitled, “A Miracle of the Heart: A Father and Son’s Autism Journey.”

As explained in the foreword, the book is unique in that it was written by both the father and son, “offering a deeply personal reflection across 34 years of life together when Jacob was diagnosed at age 2 with what was then called pervasive developmental disorder.”

The book is also unique in its frequent references to Judaism. In the beginning, Raphael quotes an essay he wrote, “As I faced the challenges of a child with severe developmental challenges, I thought about my son, the one for whom I had waited so long; my only son, the one that I loved so much. Was he to be sacrificed? How dare G-d ask this of me?”

The references are to the Akeda story in Genesis about Abraham and Isaac when G-d commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son but stopped him at the last moment.

Raphael admitted that the book is a very Jewish story. It’s not surprising considering his background. He attended a Jewish day school, a Jewish camp for four years, went to Israel with the intent of immigrating there, went again for his honeymoon and 25th wedding anniversary, as well as several other times.

His Jewish career started by happenstance. “Call it fate, karma or b’sheret,” he laughed. He was taking his graduate school entrance tests in a building that housed B’nai B’rith. He went to the office to ask for a part-time job, and they hired him to be director of AZA, the boys’ version of B’nai B’rith Girls. From there he worked for Hillel Foundation in various capacities, including as executive campus liaison for Hillel International.

His resume defines himself as a “seasoned nonprofit executive and consultant.”

As co-founder of The Jewish Story Project, he describes the University of Pennsylvania pilot as a “proof of concept” initiative to further chances of obtaining funding. He is in the process of writing a grant request for The Lost Tribes initiative.

Raphael doesn’t see himself as a spokesperson for his son, who attended Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, majoring in creative writing and minoring in philosophy. He graduated in 2015. A writer, Jacob is working on a number of fiction novels and short stories and is an active member of the Atlanta Writers Club.

Throughout his career, Raphael also combined his passion about Judaism with his interest in technology. He would say his “necessity” is to learn and use technology. As head of Jewish Grandparents Network, it “was just me. I had to use all this technology. I built the website.”

Raphael’s latest proposed venture, The Jewish Story Project – Lost Tribes, combines his Jewish identity and his personal connection to autism. He hopes to interview both the children and the parents, adding that entire families — including siblings — are impacted by an autistic diagnosis in a family member.

[Raphael and his wife also have one daughter.]

When Jacob was diagnosed, Raphael reports in their book, the family was told that one child in 10,000 was affected by autism spectrum disorders. More recently, “the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta placed that number at one in 166.”

Despite Raphael’s Jewish upbringing and career, his connection to Judaism at times has been challenged. Before moving to Atlanta, he and his wife tried to enroll Jacob in two Jewish day schools where they lived. Both rejected him. But when they moved here, The Weber School accepted Jacob.

“He did well in his classes, participated in every annual school play and, in recognition of his academic achievement, graduated as a Georgia HOPE Scholar,” reported the proud father. “Following his graduation, he continued his active engagement in the Habornim Dror Zionist youth group by spending a gap year in Israel, where he worked on a moshav and volunteered at a youth center in Tiberias.”

In the memoir, Jacob writes in a chapter entitled, “The Promised Land,” about that trip to Israel and the lessons he learned there. The connection to Judaism has apparently been passed down to a new generation.