Joyce Linden
‘JEWISH CODA’
Daughter of late Sylvia & Irving Linden
On March 2nd, Joyce Linden gave a presentation as part of JDCC’s ongoing Lecture Series. She is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Special Education at California State University, Northridge, CA. and is the hearing daughter of deaf parents.
Joyce was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley. She has one sister. She grew up at a time when the valley was still rural and there was much anti-semitism. She is one of the original “valley” girls. She was told by her parents not to say that she was Jewish and yet at the same time, they let her know that she should be proud to be a Jew by pointing out famous people who were also Jewish. As far as she knows, she was the only Jewish child in her elementary school. In Junior High, the situation changed because there were many Jewish students in which she became involved. She became the leader of a youth group. Later on, she became a teacher.
Her parents did not know much about Judaism and used to tell her to ask her grandparents when she had a question because there were no places for them to learn about Judaism. When Joyce’s friends invited her to come to their church services, she asked her grandparents what to do and they told her that she could not go. One set of grandparents kept kosher and the other did not. It was very confusing to know that she was Jewish but not know what it really meant to be a Jew.
Temple Beth Solomon (TBS) opened in 1960. At first, it was sponsored by several Temples such as Wilshire Blvd. Temple. They would meet once a month at various places on Friday nights. It was when Joyce was able to learn a little about Judaism. TBS eventually bought their own building. At the same time, they had a Sunday School where Joyce taught. At first all teachers were oral, but today it is all sign.
Joyce’s parents did not sign when she was growing up. Joyce learned to sign as an adult. She feels very strongly about deaf children learning to sign because she had an experience that made her realize lip reading can be difficult. One child she knows told her mother that she did not want to go to Sunday School anymore because it was boring because all they talked about “juice.” “Juice” this and that. The mother realized that she misunderstood “Juice” for “Jews” because they look the same when reading lips so she took her out of that program and helped her to learn sign.
When asked by a member of the audience about the difference and confusion between TBS and JDCC, she points out that it is wonderful that there are now more places for Jewish deaf to attend such as Temple Beth Solomon of the Deaf and JDCC. There were no places for the deaf when she was growing up. It is good to have choices. She also said that TBS members tend to be older people and that JDCC’s members are younger. There is nothing wrong with one or the other. She suggested that both organizations have a joint event once a year or something. These two organizations exist for the deaf and everyone should take advantage of them. JDCC consists of lectures on various topics within Judaism and tries to bring out an awareness of what it means to be Jewish by having different events for various holidays. All its events are kosher and the people who lecture are from various branches of Judaism. TBS doesn’t tend to draw a younger crowd because of its location in the valley. Most people are located in the city. They are Reform and don’t know much about Judaism.
