How did Jewish deaf people in the Los Angeles area become organized? Although California always had a reputation of being “the first” to start new programs and services for deaf and hard of hearing people such as the relay service, free TTY distribution program and social services, opportunities for Jewish deaf people started very late!
The first and oldest Jewish deaf organization in the United States is the Hebrew Congregation of the Deaf in New York. Now known as Hebrew Association of the Deaf (HAD), it was founded in 1907. There are many reasons why these opportunities in California took awhile. If you may recall, sign language was not widely used in schools until the early 1970’s. Oralism was strong, so the only way for deaf kids to participate in school was to lipread their teachers.
TBS High Holiday Choir – 1960
L-R: Elliott Fromberg, Wayne Sonneson, Helen (Zucker) Inga, Barbara Goldman
Choir Leader: Elaine (Melizer Fromberg) Aikins
Sign language books were not printed until 1964, and the National Congress of Jewish Deaf (NCJD) was founded in 1956. Telephone communication between Jewish deaf pupils was not possible until the first TTY in 1967. Interestingly, Hebrew fingerspelling in Israel didn’t start until 1977.
JDCC News recently ran a feature article on the Hebrew Seminary of the Deaf and Congregation Bene Shalom in Skokie, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. In this article, we will focus on opportunities available to Jewish Deaf residents in Southern California.
Before Temple Beth Solomon of the Deaf (TBS), the world’s first deaf owned and managed Temple in Arleta, CA was formed in 1960, where did Jewish deaf children and adults go?
Having been enrolled for a brief time in TBS’s Sunday School in 1968, I decided to find out more about the history. In case you are curious, I got my formal Jewish education at an Orthodox Temple. Although they had no experience with deaf pupils, they were willing to accept me into their Hebrew School class, and I later taught a Sunday School class at TBS for one year in 1985.
Recreation
The Los Angeles Hebrew Association of the Deaf (Los Angeles HAD) was formed in 1947. It was a social club for Jewish deaf people to get together and socialize. Alvin Klugman, who was its first president, says that they were actually not the first Jewish club of the deaf in Los Angeles. “Some older members informed me of this fact … It was in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. It lasted only about 5 years, they said. The early members are now long gone and no records exist. It was under a different name than the HAD.”
Los Angeles HAD members would meet monthly at members’ homes and have socials afterwards. For a period of time, they met at the Jewish Community Center (now known as the Westside Jewish Community Center) … They also met alternately at TBS, Sinai Temple … California Federal Savings Bank on Pico and Robertson Boulevard… and other various halls for rent. They were hosts to the 1968 NCJD Convention at the Ambassador Hotel.
Los Angeles HAD, which celebrated their 45th anniversary in 1992, folded shortly afterwards due to lack of interest and a decline in membership. Many members also attended TBS services. Upon dissolution, members elected to turn over their treasury to TBS.
How Opportunities For Youth Began
Rose Zucker plays a big role in developing opportunities for Jewish deaf kids and teenagers. She started religious school classes, and also led a group of young Jewish deaf adults.
Mother of deaf daughter Helen, she was concerned how her daughter and other deaf Jewish kids could develop their identities in the Jewish Community. She made arrangements for young Jewish deaf children to attend University Synagogue Religious School, a Reform Temple on Sunset Blvd. in Brentwood. They had a part time Rabbi, Samuel Chomsky.
Joyce (Groode) Linden was the first Sunday School teacher for deaf kids when classes started at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in 1961. Then the class was moved to Temple Beth Hillel in 1963. Joyce had two teacher’s aide, Gayle Doling Thomas and her hearing sister, Sandy Doling Naiman.
As word spread among young Jewish deaf adults of recreational opportunities in 1958, Rose Zucker also helped form a recreational group called the Unison Club of the Deaf at the Westside Jewish Community Center on Olympic and Fairfax who encouraged their attendance by providing special memberships to the Center. Members would attend weekly for swimming, basketball, volleyball, and racquetball.
The Unison Club for the Deaf dissolved when the kids got older and married, and also turned over their treasury to the newly-formed TBS.
Getting Help
It was Rose Zucker who approached local synagogues for help. The Orthodox and Conservative synagogues in the area couldn’t help because they were already preoccupied with raising funds to support their own Temples. Rabbi Solomon Kleinman (now retired) of the Union of American Hebrew Congregation, a Reform organization, offered to help. The eventual establishment of TBS came to be named in his honor.
Everyone who knew Rose Zucker adored and loved her. She was a very dedicated woman and had a big heart for lending her hands to the Jewish deaf community for over thirty years. Although she and her husband at first did not know or support sign language, one of their neighbors was Reverend Jonas, Pastor at Pilgrim Lutheran Church for the Deaf who had deaf parents.
Their deaf daughter, Helen was enrolled at the Mary E. Bennett School, an oral program, at that time. They didn’t want Helen to become friendly with Reverend Jonas, but finally gave in and eventually learned sign language themselves!
Helen’s classmates at the University Synagogue in 1955 included Barbara Goldman, Sonia Kracer Fogel, and Harriet Fortus. Rose passed away in 1986 and Rose’s husband, Harry also passed away in 1989. They are still sorely missed by the Jewish deaf community in Los Angeles. Helen is married to Lester Inga and they now live in Moreno Valley, CA.
Schools of the Deaf
Deaf schools on the East Coast did offer weekly Judaism classes after school for their Jewish students. In California, the Schools for the Deaf in Berkeley, Fremont, and Riverside did not offer such classes.
Riverside did try to offer it for two years. Stanley Menson, a hearing, energetic and new Science teacher, taught Judaism after school once a week from 1955 to 1957 to four or five kids including Helen Zucker Inga and Sonia Kracer Fogel.
Well Known Rabbi And Synagogue Helps
In 1960, Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin and the Wilshire Boulevard Temple invited Temple Beth Solomon members to attend their services and offered their facilities for social events and meetings.
The Wilshire Boulevard Temple receives financial support from their wealthy and famous members who are involved in the Hollywood film world. Rabbi Magnin’s wife, Evelyn was president of their Sisterhood and became personally involved in furthering opportunities for Jewish deaf people. Together with Helen Winer and sisterhood members, they launched Sisterhood Services for the Deaf and raised funds. The TBS Sisterhood was founded on February 4, 1962.
It is suspected that the Magnin’s interest is due to the fact that their grandson, Edgar had taken a sign language class, and even worked for the Greater Los Angeles Council on Deafness (GLAD) for a period of time. Edgar even interpreted at TBS services after it was founded several years later. Rabbi and Mrs. Magnin are now both deceased.
In 1961, elections took place for TBS’ first officers. David Balacaier was elected president, Elliott Fromberg as vice-president and Alvin Klugman became treasurer. Rose Zucker was selected to be their first secretary, and Marge Klugman as Corresponding Secretary.
Buys Own Property
In 1963, the TBS group was seeking a place to host High Holiday services, and found out that Temple Beth Torah on Osborne Street in Arleta would host their High Holiday services at another bigger location. TBS members, then rented their Temple and performed High Holiday services for two years.
Temple Beth Torah was growing and the building was too small for them, so when their building was put up for sale in 1965, it was Helen Winer with a lawyer, Robert Akrush, who helped with the escrow and organizing, tax exemption, and advising them on purchase of the building which cost around $58,000!
It was the purchase of the building in Arleta that firmly set the foundations of what Jewish deaf people could call as their “second home”. TBS held their first Friday night service at that building on March 13, 1966.
Rabbi Bernard King officiated at TBS for several years. For those of you who remember him and may have wondered where he is, he currently leads a hearing temple in Irvine where one of their members is a deaf family, so he still uses fingerspelling. His Congregation also provides interpreters when need arises.
TBS Sunday School
When Sunday School resumed at the new TBS permanent location, Frona DeCovnick, a hearing teacher who didn’t know sign language, took over for a few years. Joyce and Frona did not sign in the classroom because the parents wanted an oral education, so gestured some but it was all taught orally.
It was hard to convince parents to send their kids to TBS. Parents were afraid of the signing influence. The Sunday School was also opened to all hearing children in the area, Arleta, in the late 60’s and early 70’s. The Rabbi and other hearing teachers taught two classes before more deaf children enrolled in the class.
Deaf teachers have included Dolores Goldman, Marion Intrator, Debijo Lovitch, myself, Rebecca (Lesser) Dubowe, Shari (Eckstein) Merkin, and Charles Katz. At present, its two deaf teachers are Barry Fischthal and Roz Robinson.
TBS Sunday School Students
Deaf students that enrolled at TBS Sunday School from 1961 to 1980 include Pamela (Hammer), Mike Hammer, Judy Seid, Sharon (Dror) Soudakoff, Diane Dror, Judy Slomovic Gunter, Charles Katz, Barry Katz, Rick Reiss, Mark Sultan, Howard Sultan, Hana (Niv) Malmeth, Susan (Shapiro) Schwartz, Sharon (Roller) Caldwell, Paul Weisbrod, Steve Cole, Ellen Ehrlich, Gerri Ehrlich, Albert Woythaler, Robert Medress, Fred Lovitch, Jeff Lubman, Scott Kramer, Hedy (Udkovich) Stern, Gayle (Doling) Thomas, Sherwood Boxer, and David Schiff.
From 1985 to the present, twenty one students have enrolled. Brad Cohen, Nathan Caldwell, Eric Posner, Michael Barrett, Michael Skepper, Douglas Seibers, Aliza Holzer, Adam Kaish, Jena Goul, Johanna Goul, Marlo Lovitch, Rebecca Lovitch, Michael Shapiro, Allison Kent, Andrew Moore, Tali Dagan, Jeremy Balkan, Joseph Nazarian, Matthew Klein, Jacky Szpiro and Nikolay Pronilover.
Many of the religious school students had their bar/bat mitzvahs at TBS or elsewhere.
Congregation News
Marge & Alvin Klugman started TBS’ monthly newsletter, the “Congregation News” in November, 1961. Alvin produced the newsletter at his print shop business in East Los Angeles, which he owned for 23 years until he sold it in 1971. The Klugmans ran the newsletter until their retirement in 1988. The current editor is Jan Seeley, the Temple’s secretary who is hearing.
NCJD/JDC Conventions
TBS has hosted two conventions for the National Congress of Jewish Deaf (NCJD) to date, and will, once again, host the 1998 NCJD Convention. The first one was hosted in 1978 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, and 1988 at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim. The next convention chaired by Fred Lovitch, will be held at the Universal Sheraton in Universal City. NCJD changed its name to Jewish Deaf Congress (JDC) effective last August.
Other Efforts
The only university to serve Deaf Jewish students has been California State University, Northridge Hillel Outreach program who made an effort to start a program for the deaf students at CSUN for several years in the early 1980’s. It was run by a hearing woman, Joyce Karchem.
Several Temples offered sign language interpreters when they get a family with deaf child. Chabad House in Westwood established a hearing impaired program by installing a 24-hour bulletin board system for information on Judaism. It slowly faded. Chabad’s Annual Telethon provided live captioning on television for several years.
Temple Beth Hillel in North Hollywood started a program called, “Moses” which is a disability group that gathers together and they met all the needs for all disabled. It didn’t attract the deaf community due to not being able to mingle well.
A Jewish camp, Brandeis-Bardin Institute provided an interpreter for several campers for several years. At this time, we do not know of any Jewish camps that makes efforts to accommodate Deaf Jewish campers.
Some Temples or Jewish day schools offer programs for student with learning disabilities but there are none for the deaf students. The Bureau of Jewish Education has a committee called Commission on Jews with Disabilities. It had a speakers bureau. Ellen ‘EJ’ Ehrlich (now deceased) was very active and shared her experiences as a deaf Jew. Several others had volunteered on this committee at one time such as myself and Rebecca Lesser Dubowe.
Our Way of California – National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY) was started by Rabbi Eliezer Lederfeind in West Pennsylvania. After several hearing people attempted to start an Orthodox program for the Jewish deaf community on the west coast, Marcia Teichman, and Malka Breitman, both hearing woman, Scott Strauss, Pamela (Hammer Galiazzo) Friedman and Jeff Beck was able to get it to started. They have lectures once a month at different locations. Lori Moore, a parent of two hearing impaired sons, hopes to develop a Youth Program.
Jewish Deaf Community Center
Jewish Deaf Community Center was founded in 1992 under a different name, Creative Services Group and became a non-profit organization in August, 1994. This group was organized for and by young adults. The events are held at homes and synagogues. This group meets all branches of Judaism, not affiliated with a specific group. They also publish this publication, ‘JDCC News’ six times a year.
Services
TBS has Shabbat Services on the first and third Friday of each month, Rosh Hashana & Yom Kippur services, and Passover Community Seder on the second evening. They also celebrate Sukkah and Chanukah during their Friday night services. Their Rabbi also officiates at bar/bat mitzvahs, weddings and funerals.
Our Way has does not arrange for access to any Shabbat or holiday services. An occasional Sukkah and Chanukah celebration is scheduled.
JDCC provides Rosh Hashana & Yom Kippur services with a guest Deaf Rabbi or deaf leaders without sign language interpreters. They host the first night Passover Community Seder at a kosher facility. Sukkot and Chanukah is celebrated annually.
Due to TBS being Reform, there are limited options for Deaf Jewish who wish to attend Conservative or Orthodox services. Due to the fact that many of them use interpreters.
Referrals
JDCC routinely receives requests of where to get Jewish interpreters that are fluent in Hebrew or familiar with the Jewish celebrations, Rabbis in the Reform, Conservative and Orthodox communities that are familiar working with deaf people, and protocol of wedding and bar/bat mitzvah preparations.
Current TBS Status
Temple Beth Solomon of the Deaf has been in existence for now 37 years. Over that period of time the suburb of Arleta, where TBS is located, has deteriorated to the point where deaf Jewish people cite location as the primary factor in attending TBS events less frequently.
A large number of TBS members are now senior citizens. Despite efforts in the past to attract youth through a Youth Outreach Program. TBS membership is predominantly retired senior citizens and its membership has been in a decline.
TBS board members were understandably defensive when JDCC News researched information for this article. “Our active membership is quite varied depending on the program offered” says a statement from their Board of Directors, “Active is a hard word to define in a synagogue setting, it means many things to many people and therefor has no set parameters…”
Since Rabbi Alan Henkin’s departure from TBS several years ago, TBS has been using part time Rabbi and Student Rabbis to lead services. They are hearing and try to learn sign language in the short contractual periods they serve at TBS, often conducting services with use of an interpreter. “We do have a student Rabbi for the first time in many many years. We have been blessed with a wonderful student Rabbi this year, Rebecca Yael Schorr. She will be with us until the end of June. At that time we will reassess our situation.”
TBS finances has been in a downwards spiral as TBS started to tap into their long-term funds to cover day-to-day operational costs. TBS recently produced a manual, ‘Celebrating Judaism in the Home: A Manual for Deaf Jewish Families’. “Since it has been such a success around the country, much more than we ever expected, we would like to continue disseminating such valuable resources”, TBS statement elaborates, “…We plan to apply again for a grant to write another manual to augment…”
On the issue of youth leadership, “our young people have their hands full with the JDC convention coming up next year. Their fundraising activities have fulfilled two things: reaching out to the young adults with their creative events, as well as raising much needed funds for the convention. After the convention is over, they will reassess their future goals.”
Our Religious School, headed by Roz Robinson will enjoy two Bar/Bat Mitzvot in 1997. Our tradition has been that the Bar/Bat Mitzvah returns to our Religious School as an aide. This has worked out very well. We have a variety of children, deaf, hearing and hard of hearing as well as family members, deaf, hearing and hard of hearing for whom we provide services. Since our school is small and the school registration is confidential, we are not able to give out specific numbers. When TBS was formed back in 1965, the Religious school enjoyed about 50 children, the vast majority of which were the hearing children of our deaf congregants. Now, of course, we don’t have those numbers, but our population has shifted since those days and we serve more deaf students – the classroom is definitely more mixed.”
Thanks to Helen (Zucker) Inga and Barbara Goldman for lending the photos for this article!!!
