Synagogues are increasingly working to make High Holy Days services more welcoming to young people with developmental disabilities, creating sensory-friendly spaces, training ushers and adapting services to meet diverse needs. Leaders say the effort is not just about accommodation, but about ensuring that all members of the Jewish community feel they belong during Judaism’s most sacred days.

“We talk about teshuvah, returning to our best selves,” Rabbi Michael Ungar of Beth El-The Heights Synagogue in Cleveland Heights told the Cleveland Jewish News. “Part of that is making sure our synagogues are places where all our children can return, learn, and feel they belong.”

Rabbi Yosef Peysin, director of educational and therapeutic services at Friendship Circle of Cleveland in Pepper Piker, s

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