When Lisa Handelman was growing up, no one talked about ADHD or autism. Having always been fascinated with people’s unique strengths and differences, she went on to start a disability and inclusion program at Capital Camps, one of the largest Jewish overnight camps on the East Coast.
She is now director of inclusion and belonging at the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, where she also worked from 2014 to 2020. In between roles with the Federation, Handelman had a stint as the director of Capital Camps.
Handelman is a coach, consultant and workshop facilitator with more than three decades of experience in Jewish camping, education and disability inclusion. She holds a bachelor’s in psychology and a master’s in learning consulting.
Handelman lives in Bethesda with her husband and oldest son, where they belong to Congregation Beth El of Montgomery County. Her three other children live in Manhattan.
Tell me about your Jewish upbringing and background.
I grew up outside of New York City in Rye, New York. I would say my Jewish identity and upbringing was mostly informed by Jewish overnight summer camp. I went to Camp Harlam and I was involved in [the North American Federation for Temple Youth]. I met my husband when I was 16 through a Jewish youth group. I loved [going to camp; I was] one of those kids that live 10 months waiting for camp to start, and [I was] very involved in the youth movement on the leadership board. I spent a year in Israel at Tel Aviv University my sophomore year in college.
What are your responsibilities with the Federation?
I originally worked for the Federation in 2014; at that time, I was hired as a disability inclusion specialist. So my job at that point was to look at how our community could be more inclusive of individuals with disabilities. … I helped recruit for a new program run by Matan in the D.C. area called the Lieberman Fellowship for [Jewish] Organizations Serving Young Adults. … One thing I do [now] is help make sure that program is working well. I’ve been in touch with the mentors [in] each of the involved organizations and make sure that the learning is going well.
In addition to Matan, there’s been an active disability inclusion committee that, again, started when I was there in 2014 and they were the ones who really took the leadership in working with Matan, launching the Lieberman Fellowship. So I came back and they had done a lot of the work; I got to come in and help implement some great strategies that the disability committee came up with. I’m [also] looking strategically at [our] inclusion and belonging efforts.
Tell me about your work at Capital Camps.
More than 20 years ago, I started [the disability and inclusion program at Capital Camps]. They had the philosophies; they wanted to be inclusive and wanted to come up with a model that works, so I created what I call a “deep inclusion” model, where kids [with disabilities] were in the bunk with … [kids] without disabilities: learning, playing, acting together. We trained a set of staff. The name of the program was Atzma’im, which meant “independence.” The idea was to provide additional support so kids could be as independent as possible and have their friendships.
Over the years, I went from camp age [programs] and then a little bit older to the leadership track, and then to supportive employment, which is fun in a way because some of the [young adults] that I’m working with now were individuals that I knew from our community when they were children at camp, and then I hired some of them as counselors and as staff as they grew up, and now I’m working with them in having to be more engaged in the larger Jewish community as young adults. It’s kind of fun to watch things come full circle like that.
Why is disability inclusion important to you?
From the very beginning, it’s been as much about the individual as it has been about the community. I honestly believe that inclusion creates a better community and a community which allows us to live by, for me, my Jewish values. I think some of these values are human values, but [Judaism] values the idea [that] we’re all created in the image of God. That’s what I hold on to. … [It’s] wonderful when people live together; there’s a lot of value. That’s the way things should be. We all have our strengths, our weaknesses, our needs, and some of us who have a disability need accommodations in different ways and have every much the same right to be part of a community. I think of inclusion as an invitation to come to the proverbial Shabbat table.
What do you love most about your work?
I love connections with people. I love empowering others to go out and do what they really could do all along. I also do coaching, holding up a mirror and helping people realize those strengths they have within themselves.
What I loved about working at camp is watching the camper with disabilities and the[ir] counselor do things that they never imagined they were capable of doing and help others become their best self. Circling back to the Federation, working to make our community the best it can be is exciting.
