Let me tell you about my student and friend, Danny. He works hard every single day. He has great insights into some pretty difficult texts and shares those insights with his classmates. He also has a great sense of humor and a decent jump shot in basketball. In short, he is what a teacher wants in a student.

I came very close to not having the privilege of knowing Danny. He has Down Syndrome. Seventeen years ago, doctors told Danny's mother to remove him from the respirator he was put on when he was born. They told her he would never walk, talk or have any decent quality of life.

Danny, though, picked the right mother. She made heroic and extraordinary efforts to raise him into the wonderful kid he is today.

There are many other children who will never function at Danny's level. They are not going to walk or talk. The challenge for us as a society is how much we are going to help families find out just what their children with disabilities and special needs really can do. When are we going to understand that these are our children, too?

Danny's grandfather is a survivor of the Holocaust. Many people are familiar with the Nazis' attempt to destroy the Jews. But not enough know that the first people Adolf Hitler marked for death were those with disabilities. He felt they were a burden on his creation of a pure and ideal nation.

In many ways, Hitler followed the example of the Roman and Hellinistic definition of being created in God's image. If you look at the statues of the Roman and Greek gods, you will notice that each presents an image of physical perfection. By definition, then, anyone who did not reflect this image was expendable. We know that the Romans left imperfect infants outside to die.

One of Judaism's great gifts, and one of the main themes of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, is the insistence that every person is created in God's image. That is why we believe that God is invisible. This way, no one can say who is the ideal kind of person.

In Jewish tradition, we understand being created in the image of God as emulating God's ways. Just as God created people with love, we should treat all of God's creation with love. Just as God created people of different physical and intellectual capacities, we have to find a way to celebrate those differences and love people precisely because of their differences. Hating God's creation is like hating God.

In Jewish tradition, there is a blessing we say when we see people who have different physical and intellectual abilities. It reminds us that God created each person for a reason and that every person has something to contribute if we only take the time to develop that person's abilities and give them a life of dignity and purpose.

A society must be judged by how it treats its most vulnerable populations. The future of the individuals with disabilities and their families is at risk. More important, our souls are at stake. I am a better man for knowing Danny. It saddens me to think how many people are not touched by such an extraordinary life.

This is not a government responsibility alone, but a joyous burden for all of us.