Shalom, and welcome to the JDCC newsletter’s newest addition, a page about Jewish Deaf Young Adults.
This page is designed to recognize successful young adults, whether it may be in academics, the community, or some special talent. Also, in the near future, communication links will be set up to encourage communication between other young adults.
MAXIE THE ARTIST
Our feature this issue is on Maxie Goldberg, artist extraordinary. Maxie is currently pursuing her life long dream by traveling around the world for an indefinite period of time. However, Maxie’s mother provided me with a tremendous amount of information about Maxie’s career.
Maxie began working with drawing, painting, and clay as a small child. Her mother took her to art classes and interpreted the fundamentals of art for her. Her paintings tend to be full of people talking. In fact, this tends to be one of her most common themes and is characterized by wide open mouths and inquiring eyes. Strong, rich, sharp, colorful, and large, the pictures prove to the world how Maxie feels about deafness. Words are often added to her paintings to make her emotions obvious and understandable. Some of Maxie’s lines include, “Hearing parents have no communication with the little girl. The girl is deaf and there is no sign language”. Such blunt, yet powerful lines add to the power of Maxie’s paintings.
COMMUNICATION
Part of the reason Maxie began painting such pictures was because many classmates she knew while attending high school a few years ago at the California School for the Deaf, Riverside could not communicate with their parents. They neglected to learn sign language for the benefit of their children. Maxie stresses the importance of having all people, deaf or hearing view her paintings to bring to light the discriminations of communication barriers. She feels that with a force as strong as her paintings, hearing people will be compelled to break through the communication barrier and learn sign language. To her, painting is an effective method in conveying her frustrations about the hearing world. She believes that art is a meaningful and clever way to express any feelings about life, whether it may be about the deaf world, the hearing world, or even just plain having fun.
SUCCESSFUL SHOWINGS
Maxie’s exhibitions include a rather successful one at Temple Beth Solomon of the Deaf in Los Angeles. Many of the viewers were fascinated with the tremendous conveying of emotions through a single picture. Maxie does practice Judaism, and represented the young Deaf Jewish during the summer of 1995. She was among the first deaf campers to attend a camp sponsored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and organization dedicated to erase racism in the United States.
As for her future plans, she plans to travel and meet deaf people and learn international sign languages and to go to the World Games for the Deaf in Copenhagen, Denmark this coming summer.
That’s it for this issue! If you have any story ideas, suggestions, or know someone who should be featured in this column, e-mail JDCC at [email protected], or mail your suggestion to JDCC at 1717 Bagley Ave., L.A., CA 90035. Hope to hear from you soon!
