You Are Not A Mistake

by Mati Boulakia-Bortnick

Last week, the vast majority of the Jewish community gathered around seder tables, recited the Haggadah, and spoke loftily of liberation. They sang of freedom, told the story of Exodus, lifted their cups in joy. But while those words were spoken, many autistic Jews sat in silence - left out, overlooked, and afraid.

And now, just days later, that fear has become sharper and ever more menacing.

RFK Jr. has taken the national stage and said out loud what many have long implied: that autistic lives are less valuable at best, an not valuable whatsoever at worst. That we are burdens. That we are problems to be solved.

He announced plans for a national autism registry that would collect private health data from autistic Americans, to be utilized by researchers who want to “solve autism”. He said the cause of autism must be “eliminated” - and since autism is, by all serious research, genetic, we know what that means. He is calling for the elimination of autistic people. This is not just policy. This is not just bad science.

This is eugenics.

RFK Jr’s remarks did not stop there. He claimed that autistic people will “never pay taxes, never go on a date, never write a poem, never hold a job, never use the toilet unassisted.” These are not just falsehoods - they are cruel caricatures. They are designed to dehumanize us. They are designed to create hierarchies in the supports of different autistic people. And that dehumanization is the first step in justifying our removal from society, after years of fighting for our inclusion.

So I have to ask: where is the Jewish community now?

We know what happens when governments make lists. When disabled people are framed as drains on society. When we are talked about as if we’re already gone. Our tradition knows this pattern too well. It remembers. And yet - our leaders are quiet.

We hear words like inclusion. We are invited to Disability Shabbat once a year. Our communities post smiling photos of accessible holiday events. But when the threats are real, when the danger is loud, when the violence is clear - we are left to speak alone.

It is not enough to make social media posts about autistic members of your community if you stay silent when people call for our erasure. It is not enough to say we are welcome if you will not say we are sacred and stand with us.

Torah says that every human being is created b’tzelem Elohim - in the Divine image. Not just the normative. Not just the comfortable. Not just the people who “pass.” All of us. Disabled people. Autistic people. Queer people. Neurodivergent people. We are not broken images of God - we are God’s image, in all its wild, radiant variation.

Autistic Jews have always been here. We are not new. We are not an epidemic. We are to be found in the pages of Tanakh and Talmud. We are amongst those who built our communities and penned commentaries. We are amongst the prophets with strange speech, judges who see the world differently, mystics who rock and mutter and see through walls others ignore. We were at Sinai. And we are still here.

Jewish tradition does not teach passivity in the face of injustice. Lo ta’amod al dam re’ekha - Do not stand idly by while your sibling bleeds. The command is clear.

RFK Jr’s rhetoric is not hypothetical. It is a direct threat to the safety and dignity of autistic people and indeed, all disabled people. It is the kind of speech that leads to policy. And the kind of policy that leads to harm. And we cannot afford silence from those who claim to care.

To Jewish leaders, rabbis, educators, and community organizers - now is the time to speak. Actually speak. Not simply like a post. If you believe what Torah says about human dignity, if you believe what the Haggadah says about liberation, if you believe that we were all at Sinai, then you must act as if those words are true.

And to my autistic siblings - especially those who are scared, grieving, and exhausted - I want to say this:

You are not a mistake. You are not alone. You are not the problem.

You are part of the Jewish people. You carry the spark of the Divine. You are the reason I do this work. And I will not stop saying this until everyone hears it:

We were at Sinai.

And we’re still here.

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Mati (he/they) is a student rabbi at the École Rabbinique de Paris and the Educational and Peer Support Director of the Jewish Autism Network. An autistic and multi-disabled educator, peer-support coach, and activist, Mati leads inclusive Jewish learning spaces, supports thousands of autistic humans through peer-led programs, and consults on disability justice and accessibility across Europe and North America. He is the spiritual director of La Shul, a disability and neuro-affirming Neo-Hasidic community, serves on the Board of Directors of SVARA, and is co-editor of the forthcoming Neurodivergent Torah (Ben Yehuda Press, 2026).