Dec 23, 2013
Community News Service
Students of the Darchai Menachem boys school in Crown Heights hosted a special guest speaker: A deaf Jewish activist.
View video –www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZHqZWA6M3A
The students of Darchai Menachem were captivated by the words of Yehoshua Soudakoff, except it wasn’t his voice they heard but that of his translator.
Soudakoff, whose parents are both deaf, is also deaf from birth.
He came to speak to the boys about his life, growing up in Los Angeles, California, and becoming closer to Judaism which led him to learn and graduate Yeshivas Nefesh Dovid in Toronto, the world’s only high school for Jewish deaf boys.
Today he serves as the director of Jewish Deaf Multimedia, the only educational website for – and by – Jewish deaf people.
In his address, he told the boys that he considers himself a normal person with some challenges. He encourages the boys to look at their challenges like he does, simply something you need recognize and work on.
Special thanks was given to Rabbi Yisroel Pekar for organizing the visit.
