The Extraordinary Life of Richard Bernstein
By Bayla Sheva Brenner
Richard Bernstein, Michigan’s newly-elected Supreme Court justice, has never let anything stand in his way. As a former Detroit-based powerhouse attorney, he took on airlines, airports, universities, the American Bar Association, and the Department of Transportation in both Detroit and New York City in order to make life easier for individuals with disabilities. He’s run marathons (eighteen, so far including two half-marathons with Team Yachad in Miami), competed in Ironman triathlons, hosted a radio show and traveled the globe to speak about facing life’s challenges.
He should know. He’s blind.
Obstacles don’t exist in Justice Bernstein’s world. Blind-from-birth, he learned early on that the key to a successful life — blind or sighted — is to create your own light. He’s been busy spreading a beacon of light to individuals across the globe, bringing the message of accessibility and inclusion to cities throughout the U.S. and beyond.
He’s visited Sydney, Melbourne, the Gold Coast, London, and Sao Paulo, Brazil. Jewish communities interested in launching special education and athletics programs call on him to hear his vital message that if you give it your all, Hashem will make it possible. “I’m grateful that I’m able to give voice to people who otherwise don’t have it,” he says.
Although Justice Bernstein’s days are anything but dark, he admits it hasn’t been easy. “When you’re different, you struggle,” he says. Richard Bernstein was blinded from birth as a result of retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease in which there is damage to the retina. “But, an easy life doesn’t necessarily mean a good or fulfilling one. How you choose to respond to life, that’s how you’re going to live.” His response to a life in the dark is to become a veritable blaze of optimism.
“He loves connecting with people,” says Tzippi Rosen, program director of Florida Yachad. Rosen welcomed Justice Bernstein as a guest speaker for his second Florida Yachad Shabbaton.
“Yachad Shabbatonim are great,” says Justice Bernstein, whose visit to Florida Yachad drew a crowd of 600 captivated listeners. “You could feel the impact it has on the participants. It’s transformative for them. They crave these things that everyone takes for granted. They crave the normalcy. ‘I’m doing what my brother or sister does!’ ‘My child has this incredible opportunity to go to a Shabbaton and make friends.’ If the synagogue lets us speak ‘from the pulpit,’ more schools and synagogues would participate. You have to introduce people who have never been exposed to disabilities. If you have disabilities and want to learn more about Judaism, Yachad is the place. It’s been my total pleasure to go.”
Evidently, the feeling was mutual. “He blew everyone away,” says Rosen. “They said he was the most amazing person they had ever met. When you could hear a pin drop in an audience of students, you know they’re taking in every word. I said to myself, if he could do as much as he does [with his life] and always with a smile, I could at least do half.”
As a lawyer, he travelled to Columbia, South Carolina, to speak at synagogues and schools about the necessity of inclusion, advised the Sao Paulo Jewish community on how to promote and implement greater inclusion. He appeared at twenty speaking-engagements in ten days to audiences throughout Australia, as well as London. “Many families [abroad] don’t have the special education opportunities we have in the States,” he says. “My goal was to help them to realize what is possible.”
He’s keeping a promise he made years ago.
Justice Bernstein knew he wanted to pursue a law career from a very young age. And it’s not just because he comes from a family with three generations of attorneys. “I love what it represents,” he says. “I could literally make life better for people. If a big entity is discriminating, it doesn’t matter how powerful they are, a government or corporation — you can make real change. When there’s injustice, the law allows for change and making things right.”
Getting through law school is no easy feat in the best of circumstances. While at Northwestern University, Bernstein had to memorize lectures, test questions and entire “fact patterns” (the basis for the questions), some of which were multiple pages long; he often put in thirteen hours of study a day.
“I made a deal with Hashem,” says Justice Bernstein. “I said, ‘If You get me through this, I will dedicate my life to representing the special needs populations.’” He received his Juris Doctorate (J.D.) degree from Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago in 1999 and promptly informed his father of his aspirations to establish a public service division in The Sam Bernstein Law Firm, the family law practice in Farmington Hills, Michigan. It turned out to be the firm’s fastest growing division.
“Richard’s my hero,” says older brother, Mark, who serves as the president and managing partner of the family firm. “He had to figure out how to navigate a world that wasn’t as accommodating to him as it was for others. I think that’s what enabled him to do the extraordinary. No matter what disappointment or setback, he picks himself up and uses it to motivate him. He’s redefined the meaning of vision.”
Racing for His Life
The ultimate fulfillment of his promise to G-d came after he discovered his other great passion, athletics. He joined Achilles International, a non-profit organization providing training and racing opportunities to individuals with disabilities. (Founded in 1983 by Dick Traum, an above-knee amputee, Achilles has 65 chapters within the United States and abroad.) Justice Bernstein’s involvement led to his manifold achievements in the world’s most arduous races.
Richard Bernstein completes the 2012 Miami Marathon with Team Yachad
“Athletics gave me a self-confidence I hadn’t had before,” says Justice Bernstein, who was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame this past April. “In high school, I was unable to participate in sports. I was [relegated to] sitting on the sideline.” This newfound assertiveness inspired him to take on Herculean legal contests. “My father would come into my office and say, ‘Richard, did we just sue the city of Detroit?’ ‘Did we just sue Delta?’ I was able to break free, to have more control over my destiny.”
He partnered with the United States Department of Justice to legally push the City of Detroit to repair broken wheelchair lifts on the city’s buses. In a landmark settlement against Delta Airlines and Detroit Metro Airport, he gained access-ibility for fliers with disabilities, setting the precedent for airlines and airports to comply with the mandates in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. He also fought the State of Michigan and proved victorious in preserving special education funding throughout the state. Ironically, he filed a suit against his employer, the University of Michigan, on behalf of the Michigan Paralyzed Veterans of America. The suit claimed that Michigan Stadium (a.k.a. “The Big House”) violated the ADA in its approximately $300-million renovation by failing to add enough seats for fans with disabilities or accommodate their needs via accessible restrooms, concessions, and parking.
Thanks to Justice Bernstein’s efforts, the legal settlement called for 329 seats with an equal number of “companion seats.” In its first football season after compliance to the mandate, the university reported in a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice that 74% to 89% of the available wheelchair-accessible seats were sold for each of its seven home games. The case helped to define the compliant guideline as it pertains to the differences between “alterations” and “repairs” for commercial facilities on a nationwide basis.
One of his most recent lawsuits was filed from his bed at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan. In August of 2012, while Justice Bernstein walked through Central Park, winding down from a workout for his eighteenth NYC marathon, a speeding cyclist (going 35 mph, 10 mph over the speed limit) struck him from behind causing him to fall face down onto the asphalt. He suffered facial abrasions requiring surgery, tooth damage and a broken and dislocated hip, which required a ten-week hospital stay. The suit (filed in federal court against the City of New York and the New York City Department of Transportation) claimed Central Park was inaccessible to blind, visually-impaired and disabled visitors, that it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 by failing to stop reckless cyclists using the roadways. The lawsuit stipulated that the city come up with a plan to make Central Park safe for people with disabilities.
Months before the accident, Justice Bernstein had committed himself to attending Yachad’s High School Leadership Shabbaton in Stamford, CT. Despite his long recuperation in the hospital, he was determined to honor that commitment. He arranged to be released the Friday of the event, and secured transportation to take him directly from the hospital to the hotel where the event was taking place.
Spirituality of Disability
Although he grew up with a limited Jewish education, he found himself reconnecting to Judaism after his accident. Upon hearing of his injuries, Orthodox rabbanim in the community came to visit. “They were there for me every single day,” says Justice Bernstein, not as yet married, but hoping to someday. “That level of support inspired me to learn more and to grow. I had an incredible sense of belonging.”
Despite his disability, he considers his life truly blessed. “People who know and appreciate struggle every day are given the greatest life,” he says. “You find that you have an incredible ability to differentiate [between] what is important and what is not. You have a resiliency to push forward and do things that people never thought were possible.”
Timothy Maclean, 27, his “reader” for the past five years, benefits firsthand from Justice Bernstein’s perpetual positivity. “Here’s someone who has every excuse to let his disability hold him back; no one would bat an eyelash if he complained or had a negative attitude,” says Maclean. “Yet, he takes his challenge and turns it into something he could use to benefit others. He sees no other option.”
Difficulty doesn’t faze Justice Bernstein. His new position has him working fifteen hour days memorizing stacks of legal files, preparing for oral arguments with the six other justices on the court. Nonetheless, he relishes the opportunity the position affords him to enhance lives and to educate. “My colleagues, who have never worked with a blind person, have had to realize there is someone in the room who can’t see,” he says. “They have had to be amenable to working with the challenges that I face. At the end of the day, it has to work.”
He sees this as a chance to give people an appreciation and understanding of what people with disabilities contend with and of what they are capable. “I’m hoping [through my example] that employers will see the benefits of hiring a person with disabilities. That, if given the chance, they could rise to the occasion as loyal hardworking employees.”
Although Justice Bernstein experiences constant pain from his Central Park injuries, his spirit never wavers. To him, there’s no other way to go but forward. “The people who make the most of their lives have to work the hardest. If you have a disability, it may be more daunting and difficult, but your life is going to be nothing less than extraordinary.”
Bayla Sheva Brenner is a senior staff writer at the Orthodox Union.
This article is from the 2015 issue of Belong Magazine. If you would like to receive a hard copy please email belong@ou.org.