February is Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance, and Inclusion Month, a unified effort among Jewish organizations worldwide to raise awareness and foster acceptance and inclusion of people with disabilities and mental health conditions and those who love them. Established in 2009 by the Jewish Special Education International Consortium, JDAIM is a call to action to act in accordance with our Jewish values, honoring the gifts and strengths that we each possess.
Each week this month, we will share with you a story about how Stephen Wise Temple and Schools have put those values into action as we strive to become an even more inclusive, welcoming, and accepting community for all.
Wise School Welcomed Hollywood Artist on Autism Spectrum
In 2020, Wise School welcomed VFX/animation studio Exceptional Minds to campus for a presentation. Students, staff, and parents saw before-and-after clips of memorable VFX shots from blockbuster movies, marveling at the technical achievement and artistry.
Beyond its work on dozens of productions for Disney, Marvel, and Netflix, Exceptional Minds is exceptional for another reason: It trains and employs young adults on the autism spectrum, helping to build a future where neurodiverse perspectives advance an inclusive hiring culture in the entertainment industry. Exceptional Minds’ autistic artists have worked on such films as “Black Panther,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” and “Green Book.”
Eli Katz, one of Exceptional Minds’ graduates, accompanied Executive Producer Susan Zwerman and Wise School parent David Siegel (Exceptional Minds’ Director of Strategic Partnerships) to Wise, where they spoke to fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students in our Sanctuary. Katz told them about his detailed work on such blockbuster hits like “Black Panther” and “War for the Planet of the Apes.” Students posed dozens of questions to our guests, who taught them about the technical aspects of getting the perfect shot in post-production.
Wise School students were so impressed that, after the presentation, many of them wrote to Eli and Susan.
Wrote then-fourth grader Tali: “I learned that people with autism are the same as everyone else. I appreciated how nice people with autism are and how inclusive Exceptional Minds is to people on the autism spectrum. I was surprised that such a small community could have such a big impact on the world. A life lesson I learned from your presentation is not to judge people.”