Creating a compassionate society for Israel’s newly disabled after the war - opinion

The ongoing war has left us with many difficult and lasting scars. But perhaps the most noticeable will be a very steep increase in the number of people with war injuries that will remain with them for life. Almost all of these wounded individuals are young people, primarily soldiers, who prior to the war were vibrant and healthy, preparing for long lives of fitness and activity.

These same people will now be dependent on others, as well as extensive, if not life-long, courses of therapy and medical interventions. And while we traditionally associate disability with physical limitations, no less challenging will be the thousands of people facing emotional and mental challenges that will have an equally heavy impact on their lives going forward.

While this situation is undeniably daunting, it demands of our society to reevaluate how we look at people with disabilities. Certainly it will require that we lobby the relevant authorities, most often the National Insurance Institute (Bituach Leumi) and Defense Ministry, to ensure that our wounded veterans are getting the practical and financial support they need and deserve.

We, of course, know that these national agencies will be overwhelmed with many priorities – and at the moment, remain rightly focused on the war itself and ensuring the return of our hostages. But the current and future crisis mandates that our national leadership be focused on multiple challenges, and the needs of the “newly disabled” must certainly be a national priority.

But this situation also creates an opportunity for a shift in attitude toward awareness. There is a natural tendency to view disability as something reserved for an unfortunate fringe of society. That is a short-sighted and often erroneous perspective.

Shift in perspective

While levels of disability range, we all know someone living with some degree of physical or mental challenge that requires a level of adaptation from the society around us. For some, it is the most noticeable disabilities requiring aids for mobility or respiratory assistance. But no less challenging are issues like eating disorders, severe mental distress from depression and anxiety, vision and hearing impairment, alongside a long and difficult list of other daily obstacles.

The war should therefore be channeled as a way to shift that understanding. On a basic level, our approach to individuals with disabilities can become more accommodating, accepting, and compassionate. We need not look at the disabled as “the other” but begin to appreciate that everyone is dealing with some sort of challenge. In doing so, our perspective can become one of greater sensitivity and patience.

Maimonides taught that one of the most important aspects of helping others is in our attitude toward giving. He wrote that anyone who gives charity or support with a downturned or dejected face loses the merit of the act. Rather, we should give with a pleasant face, joyfully, while identifying with the pain of the other.

Similarly, our relationship with the disabled community should not be about charity or even pity but a fulfillment of a basic sense of human dignity and social camaraderie.

Secondly, we must accept this moment as a call to action to change the very infrastructure designed to respond to the needs of the disabled. The needs are many but this will include making public spaces far more accessible and amenable to the diverse needs of this community, as well as investing heavily in upgrading our mental health systems.

The war has changed our society in many ways, but as a nation that should be guided by Jewish ideals of humanism, morality, and dignity, we need to do everything in our power to provide for a better future for all our people by creating a more just and compassionate nation. Certainly the disabled community is a critical place to start.

The writer, a rabbi, is director of the Tzohar Center for Jewish Ethics and a founder of the Tzohar Rabbinical Organization in Israel.