Sheryl Grossman, Jewish Activist Who Shed Light on Rare Genetic Disorder, Dies at 46

March 29, 2022 JTA

Sheryl Grossman is remembered as a "fierce advocate" for people with disabilities. (Screenshot from 2021 JDAIM Interview Series at Towson University, via JTA)

By Jackie Hajdenberg

Pikesville resident Sheryl Gloria Grossman, an activist whose own rare disease fueled her advocacy for people with disabilities inside and beyond Jewish communities, died in Baltimore on Monday, Mar. 28. She was 46.

Grossman was “surrounded by loving friends after a 17-year, determined struggle with multiple cancers,” according to her obituary on the website of Sol Levinson & Bros. funeral home. “Loved by so many in every community she touched in her abbreviated life, she made every day count and left an outsized, positive mark on humanity.”

“She was truly a fierce advocate and we were honored to work with her over the years to support Marylanders with disabilities,” wrote the Mechanicsville, Md.-based Southern Maryland Center for Independent Living. “She will be missed and remembered always!”

Grossman’s cancers were associated with Bloom’s Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder characterized by many symptoms, including short stature, immune deficiency and an increased susceptibility to many cancers. (Grossman was 4-foot-3 and weighed 48 pounds.) Fewer than 300 people are listed in the Bloom’s Syndrome Registry, and about a quarter of them, like Grossman, have Ashkenazi ancestry.

Grossman became a leader in this small community, founding a Facebook group for people living with Bloom’s Syndrome.

In recent years, Grossman worked on making the workplace accessible to the disabled for the Job Accommodation Network, on housing rights for the disabled for the National Council on Independent Living, and on making COVID vaccines accessible to aged, disabled and homebound people for Independent Marylanders Achieving Growth through Empowerment.

Born in Chicago and raised in a community where she was one of few Jewish children, Grossman received a master’s degree in social work with a concentration in disability issues and advocacy from Washington University in St. Louis, where she had studied psychology and Jewish studies as an undergraduate.

Grossman relocated to the Baltimore area to receive treatment at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Grossman was a board member of Yad HaChazakah-the Jewish Disability Empowerment Center, and worked in spaces that advocated for accessible workplaces and housing rights for people with disabilities. She was also involved with the Macks Center for Jewish Education.

In the earliest days of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, Grossman was outspoken about equitable vaccine distribution in Maryland.

“I don’t think anyone will ever know just how much work Sheryl did during the pandemic to help Jewish communities support their most vulnerable neighbors who were in the hospital or isolated at home with covid,” Shoshi Finkel, a law student who met Grossman when she was an intern at the American Association of People with Disabilities, wrote on Facebook. “She didn’t feel the need to share her accomplishments; that was never what the work was about for her.”

During the 2020 primary election in Maryland, Grossman spoke to The New York Times about the challenges she experienced while voting by mail, shedding light not only on accessibility but also on privacy issues in the American elections process and how they affect disabled people.

Tributes from friends, colleagues and supporters of Grossman’s work flooded social media after her death.

Eryn Star, an intern at the American Association of People with Disabilities, called Grossman “an incredible disabled Jewish activist who transformed disabled and Jewish spaces in St. Louis, Baltimore and Washington DC.”

Grossman was an observant Jew who found herself drawn to Orthodoxy in college. She spoke frequently about inclusion in Jewish spaces and coached Jewish organizations and communities about how to adopt practices that would fully include people with disabilities.

Former Baltimore resident Rebecca Broniatowski wrote on Levinson’s website, “My husband and I met Sheryl when we were living in Pikesville and attending Netivot Shalom. We became friends quickly. She ended up living with us for somewhere between 4-6 months in 2016, before we moved away. She was a force for justice, accessibility, and much more. That’s for sure. But I knew her more just as a friend. Another Jewish woman trying to find her way in the World, merging our faith with everything else in our lives. We laughed, joked, argued, and cried together. She was at the baby shower for my first child. We’d lost touch for a bit, but regained it during Covid when I worked with her to get a vaccine because the websites were so inaccessible. I miss her dearly.”

In a 2019 Jewish Telegraphic Agency story about Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance and Inclusion Month, Grossman said, “May the day come soon when Jews with disabilities don’t just celebrate one day, or one month, where the world acknowledges us, but rather that every day is Jewish Disabled Inclusion Day!”

Grossman was the granddaughter of Sam and Freda Fruitman and David and Marion Grossman of Toronto, Canada. She is survived by her younger brother, Daniel, of Chicago and parents Karen and Professor Lawrence Grossman, now residents of Henderson, Nevada.

A funeral service was held on Tuesday, March 29, at Sol Levinson’s Chapel in Pikesville. Grossman’s funeral and burial will take place on Thursday, Mar. 31, at King David Memorial Chapel and Cemetery in Las Vegas. Donations can be made to Bikur Cholim of Baltimore, 2833 Smith Ave., Baltimore, Maryland 21209.

Jackie Hajdenberg wrote this article for the JTA global Jewish news source. Jmore staff contributed to this report.