Based on the success of the inaugural Ruderman Best in Business Awards initiative in 2015, The Ruderman Family Foundation and The Jewish Week Media Group have opened the nomination period for a second year.
The 2016 awards will again recognize exemplary businesses that have demonstrated a history of employing people with disabilities, training and supporting them and developing innovative approaches to maximizing employees’ abilities. Nominations can be made online by clicking here.
The winners will be announced in September in a special issue of The Jewish Week and on The Jewish Week website; it will also appear in the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, New Jersey Jewish News, Philadelphia Jewish Exponent, New Jersey Jewish Standard, Baltimore Jewish Times, Chicago Jewish News, Washington Jewish Week and Jewish Journal of Greater Boston. Nominations must be submitted by May 25. Click here to make nominations.
Selections will be made through a national nomination and review process by judges from the business and disability communities, including Richard E. Marriott, chairman of Host Hotels & Resorts and the Marriott Foundation for People with Disabilities. Eighteen businesses from the U.S. and Canada will be cited.
“People with disabilities are the largest minority in our country, yet they remain largely segregated from our society and unemployed at the rate of 70 percent,” said Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Foundation. He noted the importance of “recognizing those business leaders who have taken action against injustice and excelled in including people with disabilities in their workforce.”
Gary Rosenblatt, editor and publisher of The Jewish Week, praised Ruderman and his foundation for initiating the project and noted that The Jewish Week was proud to be associated with shedding light on an important issue in the community. “We believe that awareness is the first step toward empathy and positive action,” he said.
View last year's Ruderman Best In Business Award winners here.
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