A Message From The Editor

JDCC is very grateful to a Jewish family for their generosity in donating a brand new badly-needed scanner for the MAC!!!

JDCC is happy to share the good news that we have been awarded a grant from the Jewish Community Foundation in Los Angeles to do an exciting multimedia project during next year’s Seder! More information will be announced in future issues.

Starting with this issue of JDCC News, we have started a new column, ‘Surviving the Holocaust’. In each column, a Deaf Holocaust survivor will share his or her personal experiences. We cannot ignore the past and should make sure that it does not happen again and pass along recollections to present and future generations of what they went through. If you know of any Deaf person who experienced the Holocaust, we would be interested in hearing from them. The series are from materials that was originally developed for the JDCC Deaf Holocaust Survivors Panel that we hosted at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles in 1994.

It was nice to see many of you and meet new people during the Jewish Deaf Congress’s convention in August. As some of you may recall, I previously served as president of the National Congress of Jewish Deaf (NCJD) for one term which ended two years ago at the NCJD convention in Chicago. Lillian Hanover, whose husband Phillip was the first president of NCJD, had dedicated an Hanover Presidents Award to all past presidents of NCJD. Although my term ended two years ago, I received this Award at this convention. Mazel Tov to Susan Margolin who received the Celia Warshawsky Award, and Bess Hyman who was honored with the Anna & Henry Plapinger Award. Although future JDC conferences are to be held during an odd year every two years, the next JDC conference has been scheduled for 2001.

On behalf of the JDCC Board, we wish you a very Happy New Year or, as we say in Hebrew, L’Shana Tovah and an easy fast for Yom Kippur. May the new year bring us lots of good news!!!

To Sharon,

I attended the Seder. I really enjoyed myself, I am learning sign language at Mt. Sac (CA). I finally had a chance to read the JDCC News and I found it very informative. I learned more about the meaning of the mezuzahs although I am Jewish, I find myself learning more about my religion day by day. I brought a non-Jewish non-deaf friend to the Seder and he really enjoyed it and experienced the richness of Judaism. I had an opportunity to sign with Marlee Matlin and I signed the beginning of the service. I hope to attend next year.

Lori Goldberg
Fullerton, CA

Dear Sharon,

I thought you’ll find my stories innocent, humor and interesting.

I consider myself 3 important things (in order) – Deaf, woman, and Jewish. But other people’s view of me – woman & white. They don’t see me inside Deaf and Jewish. Lexington School for the Deaf in NYC that I attended for 14 years, had a very good environment with Jewish holidays and had some Jewish teachers, administrators, and many Jewish students. For example, Lexington School closed for Jewish holidays such as High Holidays – Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, Passover, at lunch times for a week they served matzoh (made of flour and water – taste like cracker) and no bread till the Passover days are over. They also had Jewish classes. I left Lexington School when I was 16 years old and went to American School for the Deaf, West Hartford, Conn. They had no Jewish class; I had to attend Catholic class! I was a very proud Jewish girl. The students in Catholic class questioned and learned so much about Jewish culture, holiday and tradition. Nuns and priests were trying to stop me but the students stopped them from preventing me from telling them about Jewish culture!

The things I will always remember -One – I had confirmation (Jewish custom; not Catholic’s confirmation) and I had relatives coming to witness my confirmation. My grandfather was one of them. He was very orthodox. My mother was well-prepared and bought kosher food, borrowed her cousin’s silver serving plates, silverware for kosher food (the kosher food can’t mixed with dairy food), plastic plates, plastic forks/knives/spoons. My grandfather still refused to touch any of the food. It broke my mother’s heart because I knew she was very careful. So I came to my grandfather and begged him to eat. I told him that I would eat with him. Since he loved me very much (he had 8 grandchildren and I was his favorite grandchild), he couldn’t refused my request. So we ate together. My mother and the relatives were both relieved and pleasant.

Second – I was chubby when I was a little girl. I visited my grandparents at their apartment in Brooklyn, NY. I always loved the kosher roast beef sandwich so I had it with a glass of milk (again, meat doesn’t mix with dairy). (And I didn’t know about the Jewish food tradition – three sets of plates dairy, meat, Passover). I was happily eating the roast beef sandwich and a glass of milk. My grandfather saw me with the marks of milk on my lips with my hands of roast beef. He just patted my head and said prayers himself. Quickly, I was told to drink the whole glass of milk. At first, I was rebelled but I was forced to drink the whole milk and refilled the glass with water. When I learned about the Jewish food tradition, I look back at my past when I had the roast beef sandwich with the glass of milk. My god! Poor my grandfather!

Third – when my uncle came to visit me, I always cooked a whole package of bacon (Jewish people don’t eat any pork and my uncle doesn’t eat any pork at his house) and he ate almost all of it. At first, I didn’t understand why; I just enjoyed cooking for him. Till I learned about the Jewish Traditional food. Oh, I understood why my uncle was eager to eat bacon at my house. My mother wasn’t following the Jewish traditional food.

I have such good memories when I was young and very innocent about Jewish traditions. Now I am really proud of being Jewish.

Nancy V. Becker
[email protected]

Hi,

My name is Doug Wolfson and my son Avi is a 9 year old with a neuromuscular disease that has made speech very difficult. We use sign to help facilitate his communication skills. His vocabulary is improving using whole word signs such as more, no, stop, car shoes, work, ready, go, shirt, etc. We have found a few Jewish signs such as menorah, Passover, but would like to find a good source for other Jewish signs such as holidays, Shabbat, hallah, etc. Thank you for your help in locating a source. Sincerely,

Doug Wolfson
Doug. [email protected]

Hello Lore,

Found your website and am truly fascinated. I am a freelance interpreter and have interpreted for Passovers in homes and on the bimah for holy days. However I am still learning about this field and could use the input even though I’ve been an RID certified interpreter for 20 years now. In my area, Detroit, not a whole lot is known about interpreting in the synagogue. If you have an e-mail mailing please include me in your list.

Carmen Johnson
[email protected]

Dear JDCC News,

I am the mother of a 5 1/2 year deaf son. The principal of our Sunday School is interested in teaching the Hebrew School students many of the prayers in sign language. We are looking for a video tape that has Jewish blessings signed by interpreters or children to use in the classroom. If there are not any tapes already produced, how could one go about organizing / encouraging the production of one. We live in N.C. and there are very few Deaf Jews here, so we are looking outside of our community for help.

Gwen Collegian Chapel Hill, NC
[email protected]

Hi,

I found you as I was surfing the net. I am incredibly impressed with your website. I read all of the issues of your newsletter and they were exceptionally informative, interesting and well written. It is so cool that you are in an area that has a sizable population to support a Jewish let alone Deaf community center. I live in Chapel Hill NC, my son is 1 of 2 school aged deaf children and he is multihandicapped, so everything is more complicated and choices are more limited.

Seems like someone in your area would have the proper expertise to videotape these prayers. I read the review of the set from Fremont and sounds like you were not impressed. You would think that the Reform or Conservative movement could get behind this. Maybe a synagogue youth group could make a tape or a group of talented Deaf Jewish Boy or Girl Scouts as a project. We just don’t have enough folks here with the background. I would love to receive your newsletter and plan on visiting your internet site regularly. If any of your deaf members travel to my area, I’d love to meet them. Thanks.

Gwen Collman Chapel llill, NC
[email protected]

Hi,

I will have adult bnai mitzvah ( group of women) next year on May 1, 1999 along with Jessica Johnson and Betsy Wohl. I am excited to learn about trap.

Next, we will have David Kastor teaching this fall with young group at Tifereth Israel. in Washington, D.C. He is from Baltimore.

[email protected]
Felece Gelb Steele

Hi Sharon,

My sister Miriam Brunn Ruberg lives in Norfolk, VA and is the principal of a communal afternoon religious school program. The kids raised some “tzedakah money” and decided they wanted to donate it to a hebrew school where Deaf kids are studying. My sister asked me what I recommended so of course I told her about your work. Apparently the check is in the mail. My sister asked me to let you know.

Naomi Brunn
[email protected]