CINCINNATI, Ohio — I recently watched the documentary Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution on Netlix. It begins in 1971 at Camp Jened, a summer camp in the Catskills for people with disabilities such as blindness, spina bifida, cerebral palsy, parapalegia, dwarfism …etc. What made Camp Jened different from other camps was that the campers weren’t held to lower standards. They all swam and played baseball. Whatever it took to make them full participants in the camp experience, they did. And they all had a voice, speaking their minds in open fora that could last into the wee hours. For many of them, this meant being treated as equal human beings for the first time in their lives.
This camp experience inspired them to start the Disability Rights Movement. Many basic public services that the able-bodied take for granted such as riding a bus or entering a courthouse were, for them, inaccessible for the lack of wheelchair ramps and other accommodations. They were supposed to have these things under Section 504 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, many government bean counters found such accommodations to be too costly for such a small percentage of the overall population. Thus, many of these provisions simply went unenforced.
The disabled population decided to do something about this. So they took over the HEW (Health, Education and Welfare) government office in Berkeley, California, staging a sit-in that lasted several days. They were aided by the Oakland chapter of the Black Panthers who brought them food and LGBTQ+ activists who helped them wash their hair. The FBI cut off the telephone lines to break their connection with the outside world, but the deaf were able to sign through the windows. After several days, their demands were finally met and subsequent activism resulted in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
As I watched this production, I noticed a number of Jewish names. The spokesperson for the movement, Judy Heumann, wore a Star of David as she spoke before Congress. She was joined by folks with names like Freeman, Jacobson, Levine, Glass, Schwarzman and Schein. While they weren’t all Jewish, too many of them were for this to simply be a coincidence. And I reflected on what Judaism has to say about the disabled.
In a booklet called Guide to Blessings I came across the following.
When you meet a deformed or misshapen person, say:
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יהוה אֱלהֵינוּ מֶלֶך הָעולָם משנה הבריות
Baruch ata Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, m’shaneh habriyot.
Blessed are You, LORD, our God, King of the Universe, who makes creatures different.
Judaism instructs us not to look away from people with disabilities, but to bless the Creator when we see them. Not all societies share this value. In ancient Sparta, babies who did not pass inspection were tossed into a chasm or simply left to die. Aristotle went as far to publicly declare “As to the exposure of children, let there be a law that no deformed child shall live.” The ancient Vikings were equally callous.
So the fact that people with disabilities are not only included in our society, but accommodated with ramps, lifts, Braille and Sign Language interpretation speaks of the profound influence that Judaism has had on Western society. Even though Camp Jened was not a “Jewish” camp, Jewish people influenced by Jewish values were the ones leading the fight for their rights as American citizens.
And that should make us all say Amen.
Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution premiered on March 25, 2020 at the Sundance Film Festival and is now available on Netflix.
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Eric George Tauber is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts. He may be contacted via eric.tauber@sdjewishworld.com