COMING FROM THE MAILBOX
Since, I last wrote, I have gotten some interesting small responses to my recent articles. I thought I would share some of them with you.
In response to “Controversy in DC” [No. 57, Mar/Apr 02, page 12]
. . . Ira R. wrote, “I agreed with much of what you said, especially that the Deaf Community itself needs to get involved in order to make changes happen . . . I dislike using volunteer interpreters and prefer them to get paid, but many hearing people are so used to having somebody bringing a family member along to translate that they assume deaf people will bring along a relative.”
. . . Laura K (from Hadassah) wrote, “I think the problem on the `other side’ is that non-profits are unaware what amount is reasonable to include in their program budgets for interpreters. If we knew that, we wouldn’t be scrambling to find volunteers at the last moment, and instead it could simply be included in the budget.”
. . . Leiba (from Syracuse) disagreed with the premise of my article and wrote, “What could be more wonderful than performing the mitzvah of aiding a group of Jewish Deaf people to have access to their culture? It is a well-known fact that the Jewish Deaf are primary targets for missionaries seeking converts to Christianity. This is especially true on college campuses . . . . also. . .a (dis)proportionate amount of Jewish Deaf people are estranged from their religion and have one of the highest rates of intermarriage amount the Jewish population in general. . . Perhaps it’s time for Jews who are also interpreters to stag viewing these requests in a Jewish manner – that of a mitzvah . . and remember that every time they refuse to do a mitzvah it just opens the door for a missionary . . .”
In response to “Accessible Service Information” [No. 58, JULY/AUGUST 02, page 12]
. . . Rabbi Lederfeind (of OUR WAY) wrote, “I want to thank you for including information about OUR WAY in your recent article . . . There are two more items you might want to add. We have a website that can be located when going through www.ou.org . . Also we have Torah by e-mail. Every week before Shabbos, we small to over 100 deaf subscribers, information about the week’s Parsha (Torah Reading) as well as Israel Alerts, OUR WAY events, and candle lighting times. This service is free. We just ask that Jewish deaf and others connected with deafness send us their name and small address with a request to be included. The OUR WAY address is [email protected].”
That’s all for now . . .I am currently busy at work on two other articles for the fall . . . a) various approaches to interpreting the Torah Reading and . . . Spotlight on some very special programming happening upin Boston.
As always, your comments are welcome, [email protected].
