You shall not insult the deaf, or place a stumbling block before the blind.
You shall fear your God: I am the Lord. -Leviticus
19:14
For years we had a subscription to the theater series at the Karmiel
auditorium, which brought plays from the various repertory companies around the
country. But we got bored with the selection a few years ago and decided to go
it alone, and create an a la carte cultural schedule for ourselves. But long
days and frequent evening meetings make it hard to keep up the resolve. We have
been seeing more movies. And we just made our Second Annual Excursion to the
Opera in Tel Aviv. The Tel Aviv Opera House is elegant and impressive.
On our way to a matinee of La Traviatta we went strolling in Jaffa port, an
old area in the process of gentrification. One of the attractions there is the
Na Laga'at ("please touch") Center which produces a play in which all the
performers are blind and deaf, and offers a dinner served by blind waiters in
complete darkness. We stopped for brunch at their Kafe Kapish, where all the
waiters are hard of hearing. There's a white-board and marker on each table.
It was pleasant (and delicious), and brought to mind the large number of such
enterprises one encounters scattered around the country: For example, Nagish
Kafe (a pun on "we will serve" and "accessible") here in the Galilee, that
employs persons with mental handicaps and illnesses, and the cafeteria at HUC in
Jerusalem which is run by a similar foundation. Then there is Lilith, a
high-end gourmet restaurant in Tel Aviv whose kitchen staff are trainees placed
by Elem, an organization working with marginal youth. Also, in addition to Na
Laga'at, the Holon Children's Museum has both a "blind experience" involving a
tour through a complex of different spaces, including a snack bar, in total
darkness with a blind guide; and a parallel "deaf experience." The blind
experience is so popular that reservations must be made months in advance. In
Old Acco one can shop at "The Shop for Meaning," run by young people with
physical and sensory handicaps, for craft items made by the handicapped as well
as various imported fair-trade products. Kivvunim, the foundation that runs the
shop, also operates a pre-army preparatory program for handicapped youth; we
partnered with them last fall to operate a circus project for visually impaired
Arab and Jewish teenagers. Maghar, an Arab village east of us, has a
disproportionate population of deaf, due to in-clan marriages. The answer of the
director of the local community center? to host an international festival of
theater of the deaf. A few miles away in Karmiel one encounters Alut-teva, a
vacation village for families of autistic children, where they can relax in a
setting where they are relieved of the tension and awkwardness that often beset
such families on vacation in more public places. And a particularly impressive
story is that of Adi Altschuler, who, eight years ago when she was 16, was moved
by her relationship with a neighbor with cerebral palsy to try to organize a
mixed youth group of handicapped and "normal" kids. The project succeeded
beyond her wildest expectations and today "Marshmallow Wings" is a national
youth movement with chapters all over the country.
It has always been a source of some frustration that Israel, with its history
of wars, and the ingathering of refugees, was not more conscious of the need for
accessibility, and in general of the requirement to accept and integrate the
handicapped. Perhaps our sensitivity was dulled by the strand in Israeli
culture in its formative years that glorified strength and self-reliance, and
was ashamed of helplessness and victimhood. We still have many challenges in
this regard. On the other hand, consciousness has risen a great deal in recent
decades, and the number of heroes, both volunteer and professional, out there
fighting on this front is really impressive, as is the creativity of their
projects.
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