Susan Margolin
Susan Margolin has resided in the Los Angeles area for more than eight years. She grew up on the east coast attending Clarke School for the Deaf in Massachusetts. She earned a B.A. in Business Administration from Rochester Institute of Technology and a Masters in Deaf Education at California State University Northridge. She now teaches four different subjects to Deaf and Hard of Hearing students in self-contained classes in a mainstreamed high school. She also teaches ASL to hearing students.
LK: What exactly are you trying to do for Jewish Young Adults?
SI: I am involved in recruiting and encouraging Deaf Jewish Young Adults to join our group JDC (Jewish Deaf Congress, one of the national Jewish Deaf organizations). Our mission is to create bonds between our Jewish and Deaf cultures, thereby to foster identity, common heritage, social interaction, and heightened education. I currently serve as the liaison person planning the Youth program (including Child care/Children’s Activities/Teens/ Young Adults) for the JDC Convention next summer
LK: How did you decide to start doing this?
SM: To be frank, I did not initiate the formation of a new Special Interest Group (S.l.G.) for Young Adults under JDC. In Chicago in 1996 at the JDC convention, I was selected to help conduct the S.l.G. for Young Adults. I had been experienced working as the Coordinator of Young Adults at Temple Beth Solomon of the Deaf in Southern California. I was honored and delighted to help coordinate an informal open discussion on the feasibility of such a group. It was quite a surprise that the room was fully packed. Young adults expressed their concerns about leadership and communication between JDC and the larger world of young people. Some of us expressed interest in forming a new committee. We agreed to meet two times a year to brainstorm about the future for young adults. During the course of these meetings, we have discussed such ideas as scholarships/funds, camping weekends, leadership retreats, singles’ events, young family affairs, education of parents of Deaf children, and social events at the JDC convention.
LK: Who is working with you on this?
SM: After establishing our committee’s goals, Marla Berkowitz of New York City and I split the duties since I have other commitments for the JDC Convention. Marla focuses on publicity, fundraising, and scholarships; I concentrate on the special aspects of the convention for young adults and youth program along with several other responsibilities. We now serve as Co-coordinators of the Young Adults Special Interest Group under JDC. Our committee members include: Moty Allshever, Jeffery Dunefsky, Richard Weinbaum, Clarisse Plosk, Barry Segal, Louis Caplan, Debbie Schulhof, David Seitchik, Yaara Brahms, and Igor Zapadivisky.
LK: How are you spreading the word about this group?
SM: Remember, it is a “baby” organization. I have written several articles for the JDC Quarterly. We started a project by signing our names on two T-Shirts embroidered with the name and date of convention (one for females and one for males) to publicize and encourage all of us, Young Adults, to attend the 1998 JDC Convention. These T-shirts are currently circulating to every city to gather signatures of anyone who is interested. We also plan to establish our own World Wide Web page.
