At Herzog Purim party for children with disabilities, costumes are inclusive by design
Second lady Michal Herzog says Jerusalem event serves as reminder of how Israel will need to accommodate large number of wounded soldiers returning from war
Welcoming children for a Purim celebration this week, the security guards at the official home of Israel’s president drew laughs when they asked a routine security question: Was there any metal in the children’s costumes?
These weren’t typical visitors. The children wore costumes designed around their mobility devices — wheelchairs and walkers transformed into rockets, game consoles, and circus tents. Yes, there was metal inside.
Hosted by First Lady Michal Herzog, Monday’s event marked the 10th anniversary of an initiative that creates custom-made Purim costumes for children with disabilities. Organized by Beit Issie Shapiro, a nonprofit focused on disability inclusion, the project paired dozens of children with professional designers from the Holon Institute of Technology and, for the first time this year, website builder Wix.
Inside the main atrium, the usual decorum dissolved into an atmosphere of energy and spontaneity, with children wandering freely across the space and interrupting the proceedings with enthusiastic outbursts.
President Isaac Herzog made an unscheduled appearance, stopping to speak to the children and pose for photos. His wife, Michal, spent several minutes with each child. At one stage, 9-year-old Oz Rappaport, dressed as Jett from the animated TV series “Super Wings,” yelled out, “Where’s the president?” Not missing a beat, Herzog raised his hands and identified himself.
Rappaport later shared details of his bright red airplane costume with the first lady. Midway through, he paused, fixated on the gold watch on her wrist. Without hesitation, she slipped it off and handed it to him. The two examined it together, Michal Herzog listening as he gave a running commentary on the watch’s features. As their exchange came to a close, Oz extended his index finger toward hers. Herzog met the gesture, and with a grin, he declared, “We’re getting electricity flowing between us,” mirroring the iconic moment from “E.T.”
Avital Grunberg’s walker had been transformed into a game of “Block Blast,” an online game that — as she patiently explained to Michal Herzog and some of the older generations in attendance — is not unlike Tetris. Unlike many participants who are less verbal and whose costumes are requested by parents or therapists, Grunberg had provided her designers with clear specifications for her design.
She asked that her costume be interactive so that her friends at school could play with it and requested a yellow ribbon to honor the hostages still held in Gaza — one of many ways that the annual event was tinged with reminders of the country’s year and a half of war.
For Michal Herzog, reflecting in her office after the children had gone home, the event offered a stark lesson about how Israel would need to change to accommodate the large number of wounded soldiers returning with disabilities, including amputees.
“The entire society has to be more accessible,” she said. “We are sadly seeing many more people now with wheelchairs and with disabilities in our society. But this will have to bring a change to society, and make us more tolerant, more understanding. This isn’t about huge budgets. We need to just be more aware of how to act, say, when someone gets on the bus with a service dog.”
Oz Rappaport’s mother, Shoshana, also reflected on the challenges of war, particularly the struggle of rushing to a bomb shelter — without a safe room at home — with a baby and a child who is not independently mobile. Though it had been some time since rocket sirens last sounded in their area, she said her son was still processing the experience. “Just today he heard an ambulance outside and said, hey, we need to go to the shelter,” she said. The party offered a respite from that stress.
Grunberg, who attends a mainstream middle school, has also found respite through her lifelong involvement with Beit Issie for most of her life, first as a toddler at its early intervention center, and now as part of its teen leadership group.
“During the year, I feel different, and not in a good way,” she said. “People look at me, and I don’t want to feel different. But now I feel different in a good way. People are looking at me not because of my disability and my walker but because of my costume and how special it is.”
She and the two designers behind her costume, Amit Fisher and Or Joffe, wore matching yellow earrings shaped like elements from the game.
Fisher and Joffe, both graduates of the Holon Institute of Technology, have volunteered with Beit Issie Shapiro’s costume project, called Dream Costumes, for eight years. Two years ago, the two helped establish a 3-D lab at the organization’s Ra’anana campus. The lab produces custom objects to make daily life easier for children with disabilities, including yogurt holders, adapted spoons and tablet mounts for wheelchairs.
“Purim is our festival,” Fisher said. “It’s the one for giving what we can to Beit Issie.”
The impact of Beit Issie’s costume initiative has extended beyond its initial scope. Chana Yamin-Cherki, the organization’s vice president of professional services, noted that the concept had been adopted by other design schools across Israel.
“This is much more than another fancy dress event,” she said. “We’ve carved a path that shows others that it’s possible for children with disabilities to be included in society at large, and now so many have followed our lead.”
Yamin-Cherki said that during the war, Beit Issie went beyond its daily services to support evacuees, assist wounded soldiers, and help children and families cope with trauma.
She described the organization’s annual Dream Costumes as a “highlight of the year – like all children, our kids eagerly await the festivities, the costumes, and the magic of the holiday.” But in times of war, the Purim initiative “takes on even greater significance. It provides a day of joy and escape, allowing children to set aside the weight of trauma and immerse themselves in the excitement of Purim.”
This year’s event at the President’s Residence added “an extra layer of excitement and pride,” she said.
Limor Sahar Inbar, dean of students at HIT, framed the project as more than an exercise in design. “This project is much more than just designing costumes,” she said. “It is a true connection, a touching human encounter between students and incredible children, between academia and emotion, between technical skills and the ability to listen, understand, and give from the heart.”
Niv Farchi, Head of the Design Guild at Wix, said the experience reinforced the core motivations behind his profession. “Our designers are just looking for an opportunity to design and create and to walk around the office with glue on their fingertips,” he said. “So thank you for reminding us why we wanted to be designers in the first place.”
As the event wrapped up, Michal Herzog reflected on the gathering. “I’m looking around at our staff here and I don’t remember a time we were smiling so much at an event here, ever,” she told the crowd.
She added, “These are painful and sad days. We have visited over 1000 bereaved families and an event such as this that brings a smile to us and the team is unusual and so much more special and significant at times like these. Our greatest asset is our unity and one cannot have unity without inclusion.”
