Mat Wilson: Conshohocken Resident Works ‘To Grow The Library of Disability Torah’

For Mat Wilson, empathy is important.

Wilson is the founder and director of an organization called the Disability Torah Project, which looks to apply Jewish teachings to the lives of the disabled, and Wilson’s work with disabled Jews has shown the director new perspectives on Judaism that can help all of us move toward a more just future.

Just take one example of a writing the organization published on the story of the ten plagues in Egypt.

“One of our early writers became blind as an adolescent and used that experience to look at the plague of darkness in Exodus and think about the empathy we can have for the Egyptians who have been plunged into this really horrific [state],” Wilson said. “Thinking about their perspective in that way was something that I had never thought about.”

Wils