Dear Readers,

We have contacted National Association of the Deaf to request to make a motion to avoid conflicting with major Jewish holidays with their state and national convention and events. There was a large number of conflicts this year due to the fact that Rosh Hashana fell on Saturday and Sunday. We hope to hear good news.

We hope you will enjoy reading about Brandeis Program. A bit of history about BCI. BCI was the brainchild of Dr. Shlomo Bardin. In the early 1940’s, they were very concerned about the “accelerating disappearance of young Jews into the American Melting Pot”. Shlomo Bardin studied the “fokscoler” (Folkschool) created in Denmark in the mid-1800’s that saved Danish culture from total German assimilation. He also studied the “kibbutzim” (communal villages) being set up in Israel, and the impact dance, theater, art and music have on people at a camp. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis shared Bardin’s vision and provided the initial funding for the first summer of the program in 1941. He tragically died before that summer and the program was named for him in his memory.

Thanks to the Ruth/Allen Ziegler Foundation for making the deaf program accessible to allow deaf Jews participate in the Brandeis Camp!

The results of the community poll in regards to the 2004 Seder: JDCC has voted to proceed with their own Seder plans so reserve Tuesday, April 6th. More details will be in the next issue.

Thanks so much to all the volunteers who helped our JDCC booth during Deaf Expo 2003: Jo Cooperman, Aaron Morris, Marie Partouche, Shari Hanaumi, Kenneth Rothschild, Helen Inga, Joshua Soudakoff and Kay Vanzant.

Happy Chanukah!