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Judy Heumann, Jewish disability advocate who spurred a movement, dies at 75
(JTA) — In Judith Heumann’s 2020 memoir, the lifelong advocate for people with disabilities describes feeling shocked upon being invited to read from the Torah at her synagogue in Berkeley, California. Not only were women permitted to carry out the sacred task, unlike in the Orthodox synagogue of her Brooklyn childhood, but the bimah, or prayer platform, had been made accessible just for her.
“Oh my God, I thought, I’ve never been asked to do an aliyah,” Heumann wrote, using the Hebrew word for the ritual. “I learned how to do it.”
The moment was just one of many when Heumann, who died Saturday at 75, charted ground that had previously been off-limits to wheelchair users like her. Since contracting polio as a toddler, Heumann broke down barriers for disabled children and educators in New York City schools, protested until federal legislation protecting people with disabilities was passed and advised multiple presidential administrations on disability issues.
A cause of death was not immediately given for Heumann, whose website announced her death on Saturday in Washington, D.C. Heumann had lived there for 30 years, since being tapped by the Clinton administration to serve as assistant secretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services.
Heumann was born in 1947 to two parents who had separately fled Nazi Germany as children in the 1930s; all of her grandparents and countless other family members were murdered in the Holocaust.
She said she believed it was her parents’ experience that led them to reject doctors’ advise to have their daughter institutionalized after she contracted polio and lost the use of her legs. “They came from a country where families got separated, some children sent away, others taken from their families by the authorities and never returned — all part of a campaign of systematic dehumanization and murder,” she wrote in her memoir, “Being Heumann.” “Their daughter, disabled or not, wasn’t going anywhere.”
Instead, her parents and in particular her mother, Ilse, set about to advocate for her. When the city school system said Judith could not attend her neighborhood school, Ilse got a rabbi to agree that she could attend his yeshiva if her daughter learned Hebrew. Judith did, but the rabbi did not keep his word. Instead, Ilse lined up an array of activities for Judith, including thrice-weekly Hebrew school classes accessible only if her father carried her in her chair up a flight of stairs, until the city opened a program for children with disabilities.
Judy Heumann attends the 2022 Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Organization Summit at United Nations in New York City, May 20, 2022. (Chance Yeh/Getty Images)
There, Heumann wrote, she first encountered “disability culture” — what she described as “a culture that has learned to value the humanity in all people, without dismissing anyone for looking, thinking, believing or acting differently.” She would experience and then help craft this culture during a decade at summer camp, in a movement captured in the 2020 documentary “Crip Camp,” and then throughout a lifetime of advocacy that earned her the moniker “mother of the disability rights movement.”
One notable win came in 1970, after Heumann graduated from college with a degree in speech therapy. Told that she could not teach in New York City schools because she could not help children leave in case of fire, Heumann sued. She was represented in part by an attorney who would argue Roe v. Wade in front of the Supreme Court, and the case came before Judge Constance Baker Motley, the only woman on the NAACP legal team that argued Brown v. Board of Education. The city quickly settled and Heumann ultimately got a job at her old elementary school.
The public fight propelled Heumann into the leadership of an inchoate disability rights movement. Two years later, she participated in New York City protests in favor of federal anti-discrimination laws that President Richard Nixon ultimately signed. In 1977, she was one of dozens of disability advocates to occupy a federal building in San Francisco in a demonstration calling for enforcement mechanisms. Their advocacy led to Section 504, a federal statute that requires entities receiving government funds to show that they do not discriminate on the basis of disability.
The episode was dramatized on Comedy Central’s “Drunk History.” Heumann was played by Ali Stroker, a Jewish actress who was the first wheelchair user to perform on Broadway. Heumann was also recognized as Time Magazine’s 1977 Woman of the Year in a 2020 retrospective.
Heumann was a cofounder of the Center for Independent Living in Berkeley before returning to the East Coast and the government advisory roles. Through it all, Heumann remained involved with the Jewish communities where she lived, including by having a bat mitzvah ceremony as an adult. In Washington, she was a member of Adas Israel Congregation.
In 2016, she cited tikkun olam, the ancient rabbinical imperative to repair the world, during a 2016 White House event during Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month. “The Jewish community has an obligation, I believe, to be leaders,” said Heumann, then special advisor for international disability rights in the State Department.
She also traveled as an adult to her father’s hometown in Germany, Hoffenheim, where she was taken to the site of the synagogue that the Nazis destroyed but noted that no one there spoke openly about what had happened to the local Jews.
In “Being Heumann,” she connected the experience to her own efforts to bring people with disabilities into the mainstream. “What a pervasive influence silence and avoidance have had on my life,” she wrote. “Why wasn’t I in school? Silence. Why aren’t we allowed on buses? Silence. Why can’t disabled people teach? Silence. Where are all the Jews going? Piercing silence.
“I refuse to give in to the pressure of the silence,” she concluded.
Heumann’s allies in the Jewish disability advocacy community mourned her death.
“So sad to learn of Judy Heumann’s passing,” tweeted Jay Ruderman, whose family foundation has been a leader in supporting Jewish disability inclusion. “She was one of the preeminent disability rights leaders in our country’s history and her accomplishments made our world a better place. I’ll miss you Judy and may your memory be a blessing.”
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The post Judy Heumann, Jewish disability advocate who spurred a movement, dies at 75 appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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German Auction House Cancels Sale of Holocaust Artifacts Following Outrage
People with Israeli flags attend the International March of the Living at the former Auschwitz Nazi German death camp, in Brzezinka near Oswiecim, Poland, May 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
An auction house in Germany canceled a sale of hundreds of Holocaust artifacts – including letters written by German concentration camp prisoners to their loved ones — that was scheduled to take place on Monday following intense backlash from an association of Holocaust survivors and government officials in Poland and Germany.
Radoslaw Sikorski, the deputy prime minister of Poland, announced on Sunday that the “offensive” auction was canceled after he and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul “agreed that such a scandal must be prevented.” Sikorski called for the Holocaust artifacts to be instead given to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum.
“The memory of Holocaust victims is not a commodity and cannot be the subject of commercial trade,” he said in a post on X. “Respect for victims requires the dignity of silence, not the din of commerce.”
The Auktionhaus Felzmann auction house in the city of Neuss planned to sell on Monday a lot titled “The System of Terror Vol II 1933-1945.” It included more than 600 items such as Gestapo index cards and other documents that belonged to perpetrators of the genocide against European Jewry. Also up for sale were personal documents “relating to the persecution and humiliation of individuals” that contained the real names of Holocaust victims, according to the International Auschwitz Committee, which unites organizations, foundations, and Holocaust survivors from 19 countries. The items have since been removed from the Auktionhaus Felzmann website.
Over the weekend, Christoph Heubner, executive vice president of the International Auschwitz Committee, called on the auction house to “show some human decency” and cancel the auction.
“For victims of Nazi persecution and survivors of the Holocaust, this auction is a cynical and shameless piece of marketing,” said Heubner. “It leaves them outraged and stunned. Their history and the suffering of all those who were persecuted and murdered by the Nazis are being abused and exploited for commercial gain.”
Heubner added that personal documents relating to the Holocaust and the persecution of Jews belong to the families of victims. Those items “should be displayed in museums or in exhibitions at memorial sites and not be reduced to profit-making articles in a commercial context,” he noted.
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Trump Hosts Saudi Crown Prince for Pomp-Filled, Deal-Making Visit
US President Donald Trump stands next to Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman during an arrival ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, US, Nov. 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
President Donald Trump hosted Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House on Tuesday, with the Saudi de facto ruler seeking to further rehabilitate his global image after the 2018 killing of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi and deepen ties with Washington.
Making his first White House visit in more than seven years, the crown prince was greeted with a lavish display of pomp and ceremony presided over by Trump on the South Lawn, complete with a military honor guard, a cannon salute, and a flyover by US warplanes.
Talks between the two leaders are expected to advance security ties, civil nuclear cooperation, and multibillion-dollar business deals with the kingdom. But there will likely be no major breakthrough on Saudi Arabia normalizing ties with Israel, despite pressure from Trump for such a landmark move.
The meeting underscores a key relationship — between the world’s biggest economy and the top oil exporter — that Trump has made a high priority in his second term as the international uproar around the killing of Khashoggi, a Saudi insider-turned-critic, has gradually faded.
US intelligence concluded that bin Salman approved the capture or killing of Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The crown prince denied ordering the operation but acknowledged responsibility as the kingdom’s de facto ruler.
The warm welcome for bin Salman in Washington is the latest sign that relations have recovered from the deep strain caused by Khashoggi’s murder.
Trump greeted bin Salman with a smile and a handshake on the red carpet, while dozens of military personnel lined the perimeter. The limousine was escorted up the South Drive by a US Army mounted honor guard. The two leaders then looked skyward as fighter jets roared overhead, before Trump led his guest inside.
Before sitting down for talks, the two leaders chatted amiably as Trump gave bin Salman a tour of presidential portraits lining the wall outside the Oval Office.
During a day of White House diplomacy, bin Salman will hold talks with Trump in the Oval Office, have lunch in the Cabinet Room, and attend a formal black-tie dinner in the evening, giving it many of the trappings of a state visit. US and Saudi flags festooned lamp posts in front of the White House.
Trump expects to build on a $600 billion Saudi investment pledge made during his visit to the kingdom in May, which will include the announcement of dozens of targeted projects, a senior US administration official said.
The US and Saudi Arabia were ready to strike deals on Tuesday for defense sales, enhanced cooperation on civil nuclear energy, and a multibillion-dollar investment in US artificial intelligence infrastructure, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Trump told reporters on Monday, “We’ll be selling” F-35s to Saudi, which has requested to buy 48 of the advanced aircraft.
This would be the first US sale of the fighter jets to Saudi Arabia and mark a significant policy shift. The deal could alter the military balance in the Middle East and test Washington’s definition of maintaining what the US has termed Israel’s “qualitative military edge.” Until now, Israel has been the only country in the Middle East to have the F-35.
Beyond military equipment, the Saudi leader is seeking new security guarantees. Most experts expect Trump to issue an executive order creating the kind of defense pact he recently gave to Qatar but still short of the congressionally ratified NATO-style treaty the Saudis initially sought.
EYE ON CHINA
Former US negotiator in the Middle East Dennis Ross, who is now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank, said Trump wants to develop a multifaceted relationship that keeps Saudi Arabia out of China’s sphere.
“President Trump believes all these steps bind the Saudis increasingly to us on a range of issues, ranging from security to the finance-AI-energy nexus. He wants them bound to us on these issues and not China,” Ross said.
Trump is expected to keep up pressure on bin Salman for Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords and normalize relations with Israel.
The Saudis have been reluctant to take such a major step without a clear path to Palestinian statehood, a goal that has been forced to the backburner as the region grapples with the Gaza war.
Trump reached Abraham Accords agreements between Israel and Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and Sudan during his first term in 2020. In recent weeks, Kazakhstan agreed to join.
But Trump has always seen Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords as the linchpin to achieving a wider Middle East peace.
“It’s very important to him that they join the Abraham Accords during his term and so he has been hyping up the pressure on that,” the senior White House official said.
Jonathan Panikoff, former deputy national intelligence officer on the Middle East, said that while Trump will urge bin Salman to move toward normalizing ties with Israel, any lack of progress there is unlikely to hinder reaching a new US-Saudi security pact.
“President Trump’s desire for investment into the US, which the crown prince previously promised, could help soften the ground for expanding defense ties even as the president is determined to advance Israeli-Saudi normalization,” said Panikoff, now at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington.
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After UN Vote, Netanyahu Calls for Hamas’s Expulsion From the Region
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the plenum of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, Nov. 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday called for Hamas to be expelled from the region, a day after the UN Security Council endorsed President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war that offers the Palestinian terrorist group amnesty.
Netanyahu publicly endorsed the plan during a White House visit in late September. However, his latest remarks appear to show that there are differences with the United States on the path forward. Hamas has also objected to parts of the plan.
Diplomats say privately that entrenched positions on both the Israeli and Hamas sides have made it difficult to advance the plan, which lacks specific timelines or enforcement mechanisms. Still, it has received strong international backing.
Netanyahu on Tuesday published a series of posts on X in response to the UN vote. In one post, he applauded Trump and in another wrote the Israeli government believes the plan would lead to peace and prosperity because it calls for the “full demilitarization, disarmament, and deradicalization of Gaza.”
“Israel extends its hand in peace and prosperity to all of our neighbors” and calls on neighboring countries to “join us in expelling Hamas and its supporters from the region,” he said.
Asked what the prime minister had meant by expelling Hamas, a spokesperson said that it would mean “ensuring there is no Hamas in Gaza as outlined in the 20-point plan, and Hamas has no ability to govern the Palestinian people inside the Gaza Strip.”
PLAN DOES NOT CALL FOR HAMAS’s EXPULSION
Trump’s 20-point plan includes a clause saying that Hamas members “who commit to peaceful coexistence and to decommission their weapons will be given amnesty” and members who wish to leave will be given safe passage to third countries.
Another clause says Hamas will agree to not having any role in Gaza’s governance. There is no clause that explicitly calls for the Islamist militant group to disband or to leave Gaza.
The plan says reforms to the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority may ultimately allow conditions “for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.”
Ahead of the UN vote, Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel remained opposed to Palestinian statehood after protests by far-right coalition allies over a US-backed statement indicating support for a pathway to Palestinian independence.
Netanyahu also opposes any Palestinian Authority involvement in Gaza.
MULTINATIONAL FORCE FOR POST-WAR GAZA
The Security Council resolution authorized a multinational force that Trump’s plan says will be temporarily deployed to Gaza to stabilize the territory. The resolution’s text also says member states could join a “Board of Peace” that would oversee reconstruction and economic recovery inside Gaza.
Hamas has criticized the resolution as failing to “live up to the demands and political and humanitarian rights” of the Palestinian people, who it said rejected an international guardianship mechanism of Gaza.
Any international force must only be deployed along Gaza’s borders to monitor the ceasefire and under UN supervision, Hamas said in a statement, warning that such a force would lose its neutrality if it tried to disarm the terrorist group.
Reham Owda, a Palestinian political analyst from Gaza, said the Hamas statement should be viewed as an objection, rather than complete rejection, in an attempt to negotiate mechanisms for the international force and the role of the board of peace.
A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect on Oct. 10 as part of Trump’s multi-phased plan to end the war. Israel has partially withdrawn its forces but still controls 53% of Gaza and the sides have accused each other of violations.
Abu Abdallah, a businessman displaced in central Gaza, said Palestinians would support the deployment of international forces if it meant that Israel would fully withdraw its forces.
“Hamas can’t decide our fate alone, but we also don’t want to get rid of one occupation, Israel, and get another international occupation,” he said by phone.