News From Around The World

     The Sound of Silence by Richard Rabkin
     Congregation Bene Shalom's 35th Year With Goldhamer
     Rabbi Rebecca Dubowe Celebration
     Rabbi Fred Friedman Leads Seder in Berlin
     Sandy Hart's Fund Established
     Deaf Seder Draws Crowd in Baltimore
     MSD's Feldman No-hits Quantico
     Deaf Seek NIS 750 Million for Subtitle Violation
     CSUN Selects New Coach for Academic Bowl
     CSI: NY Has Deaf Roles in "Silent Night"
     Marlee Matlin Named News of the Week
     Hamodia Magazine Prints Responses to Editor
     Deaf Genetics Project at CSUN/UCLA


The Sound of Silence by Richard Rabkin
Reprinted from Aish.com - December 31, 2006

One of the liveliest Shabbat dinners we hosted was with a group of deaf teenagers.

I don't like awkward silence. I like the high paced exchange of ideas that accompanies a lively conversation. Unfortunately, while walking home from synagogue on a recent Friday night with three guests we had invited over for dinner, the four of us didn't utter a word. Awkward silence.

It wasn't that we had nothing to say to each other. My guests were deaf. They were three boys all aged 15, and all attending the world's only Jewish academy for the deaf --Yeshivat Nefesh Dovid.

When my wife opened the door to welcome us back from synagogue, almost magically the lively conversation that I had been hoping for suddenly began. My wife is a sign language interpreter. She can amplify the voice of these young men for those of us who cannot hear them.

With her help, I quickly learned about our guests. Josh is from Los Angeles, has a face that radiates happiness and likes our little dog Oreo because it reminds him of his pet dog back home.

David is from Paris and has command of six languages -- French, Hebrew and English, as well as their three sign language counterparts (yes, each language has its own corresponding sign language, and yes, some deaf people can also use their voices). His father, who is deaf, sought advice from the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Shneerson, when he was a young bachelor on where he could find another deaf Jewish girl, since there were none suitable in his native Israel at the time. The Lubavitcher Rebbe told him to move to France, where he was introduced to David's mother.

Moshe is originally from Argentina and moved to Israel with his family a few years ago. He has command of Spanish, Hebrew and English and their sign language counterparts. He tells us that he likes North America because he found Israel "boring." When I confessed to Moshe that I have heard many adjectives used to describe Israel over the years, but "boring" was not one of them, he told us that there were no suitable schools for Moshe to attend in Israel, so he'd spend much of his time sitting around doing nothing. Boring indeed.

As we sat down for our meal, I was forced to think about things that as a "hearing person" I usually take for granted. For example, when reciting the Kiddush - the prayer over the wine that marks the sanctification of the Sabbath day, I wondered if my guests could even hear me? If not, how do I accommodate them? Since I assumed that they could read lips, I recited the Kiddush slowly, and enunciated clearly, and I saw that the boys were watching the movements of my lips carefully and following along with intense devotion.

With my wife's hands furiously at work, and her voice giving expression to their thoughts, the conversation was as lively as any other Friday night -- if not more.

Although singing special Sabbath songs to celebrate the day is a welcome activity in our household, would such an observance actually be insensitive to our guests who cannot exactly participate? I erred on the side of caution and left the singing for another day.

This did not mean that our Sabbath table was quiet. On the contrary, with my wife's hands furiously at work, and her voice giving expression to their thoughts, the conversation was as lively as any other Friday night -- if not more. I could not help but think how amazing sign language is. Invented only a few hundred years ago, it has given bright, talented, sensitive people the ability to communicate, when society previously never gave them a second thought.

Rebuilding Shlomo's World
A good example is a boy named Shlomo who also attended Yeshivat Nefesh Dovid, and whom I had met previously. Born in Yemen into a traditional Jewish family, he suddenly lost both his hearing and his entire memory at the age of eight due to a terrible childhood illness. All at once the world around him made very little sense, and the Jewish practices that he had learned from his father over the course of his short life looked foreign and strange.

He watched his father wrapping tefilin, but he could not explain to his son what he was doing, and likewise could not relay the beauty behind the mitzvah. Shlomo would attend synagogue with his family, but he could not hear the cantor nor follow along and could no longer read or vocalize Hebrew. He felt like a stranger in his own home and a foreigner in his own religion.

Because Judaism is a religion that is passed down from parent to child, teacher to student -- much of it through our oral tradition, someone who cannot hear is at a distinct disadvantage.

After a few years of intense frustration, Shlomo could no longer bear to live with his parents in Yemen and moved to New York to live with his sister. He began attending a public high school with deaf facilities but no Jewish education. When Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Kakon, the principal of Yeshivat Nefesh Dovid, heard the story, he rushed down to New York to convince Shlomo to attend his school in Toronto. After some arm twisting and encouragement from his family, Shlomo agreed.

Finally taught in a language that he was able to understand, Shlomo took to his Jewish studies and observance immediately. Finally someone was able to explain the purpose of the mitzvot and the answers were illuminating. He graduated from the high school successfully and moved onto Israel where he is now furthering his Talmudic studies at an advanced level. Recently, Shlomo experienced something else that he had once thought impossible -- he got married.

What impresses me most about all these boys -- Shlomo, Josh, Moshe and David -- is their strength of character. Over the years, I have had the pleasure of working with many teenagers in different organizations, and have found that some of them, even though they seemingly have "everything," are often depressed, despondent, and even somewhat angry. In a word -- they are teenagers. But these deaf boys, who could have chosen to be angry with the hand that God has dealt them, seem so well adjusted. So mature. So happy!

Throughout our Friday night dinner, the boys shared with us the lessons that they have learned in school about the weekly Torah portion. My wife was able to express their genuine wonderment of the depth of the Torah. After Shabbat, we heard from Rabbi Kakon that this was the first time these boys were able to give a dvar Torah -- a thought about the weekly portion -- to hearing people at a Sabbath table. Such is the power of sign language.

As we completed our meal and the boys got up to leave, I wished them a "Good Shabbos." But this time, they didn't have to read my lips - by then I knew how to say it in sign language. Over the course of the evening I learned a few words and was putting my newfound vocabulary to work. After a few moments I realized that I was having a direct conversation with my new friends, but doing it in silence. There was nothing awkward about this silence. This silence was golden.

Visit http://www.nefeshdovid.com for more information or about Yeshivat Nefesh Dovid and to give your support.

Congregation Bene Shalom's 35th Year With Goldhamer
On May 20th, Congregation Bene Shalom of the Deaf will celebrate its 35th anniversary with Rabbi Douglas Goldhamer as spiritual leader/ Rabbi Goldhamer founded CBS in 1972 along with a few deaf leaders in Chicago. CBS became the home of the first full-time synagogue for the Jewish Deaf people in the U.S. Dinner and silent auction will be held at Grazie's Restaurant in Des Plaines, IL. For more information, contact Nona Balk at

Speaking of Goldhamer, he was honored to receive the Rabbi Hayim Goren Perelmuter Memorial Award from KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation in recognition of his creative response to serving the unmet social and religious needs of deaf Jews on January 26, 2007.

Rabbi Rebecca Dubowe Celebration
Temple Adat Elohim will celebrate a very special time in the history of their congregation. Rabbi Rebecca Dubowe celebrates her 10th year at Temple Adat Elohim and her 13th year as a Rabbi. Rebecca will be honored with a celebration in dinner, dance and memories on June 23, 2007. For more info, contact Lisa Zweig, Gala Chair at 805-497-7101 Voice.

Rabbi Fred Friedman Leads Seder in Berlin
Rabbi Fred Friedman of Baltimore, MD shares his experience with us. "For the past 25 years, we always had our two Seders at our home with many Jewish Deaf adults and deaf and hearing children. We really enjoyed having them.

Then came a rare opportunity to do a mitzvah to lead the Seders for European Jewish Deaf people in Berlin. It was arranged by Chabad House of Berlin, Germany under Rabbi Techital and the coordination of Mark Zaurov of Hamburg.

It was an awesome experience for all of us. There were 22 people including my wife and our two sons, Ari and Shimon at Hotel Marriott in Berlin, Germany for the 1st Seder and then 2nd Seder at Chabad House in the same city. After the 1st Seder we walked three miles from Hotel Marriott, which was located in East Berlin, to the Chabad House that was located in West Berlin, it took us 2 hours to walk this distance. We stayed in a hotel near the Chabad House.

The European Jewish Deaf people had a great time, learned a lot about the Seders itself. I used universal sign language with them. It went very nicely.

During the 2nd Seder at Chabad House, they asked me if I would do that again next year in Zurich, Switzerland. I could not make any promises at this time.

The deaf participants learned a lot and understand better than ever what was going on during the Seders. They felt being part of the Jewish people celebrating the Pesach Seders!

This is my second trip to Berlin in the past 9 months. First one was the DHI Conference (Deaf History International) under the coordination of Mark Zaurov in Berlin.

The U.S. President, John F. Kennedy, made a famous quotation in his speech when he went to West Berlin, "Ich bin ein Berliner" ("I am a citizen of Berlin") on June 26, 1963. I can also say that I am a Berliner!"

Photo credit goes to Mark Zaurov.

Sandy Hart's Fund Established
Sandy passed away on January 8, 2007 at the age of 46. Her husband Bob and son Daniel explains that they have established Sandy Hart's Fund at the NATA - National Athletic Trainers Association Research and Education Foundation per Sandy's wishes. With over 20 years experience as a Certified Athletic Trainer, she would have encouraged research for the athletic training profession and to provide scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students of athletic training. Sandy had a compassion for sports and coaching youths but always remembered the importance of safety for the athlete. Donations to her fund is one way of giving back to an amazing individual who gave so much! Send donations to NATA Foundation 2952 Stemmons Freeway, Dallas, TX 75247 800-TRY-NATA. Request to send an acknowledgment to Bob & Daniel Hart.

Deaf Seder Draws Crowd in Baltimore
On Sunday, March 11 Towson University's Hillel and Deaf Studies Program co-hosted a model Passover Seder in American Sign Language, attended by more than 80 members of the community, including Towson University students and people of all ages from the Baltimore-Washington Jewish Deaf community.

The Seder was lead by Rabbi David Kastor, who is a Deaf ordained Rabbi.

For further information, contact Sheryl Cooper, Coordinator of Towson University's Deaf Studies Program, 410-935-4427.

Reprinted from Baltimore Jewish Times, March 23, 2007

MSD's Feldman No-hits Quantico
Jessica Feldman hurled a no-hitter for Maryland School for the Deaf as part of a season-opening doubleheader sweep at Quantico in Virginia on Friday.

The Orioles won the first game, 16-0, and then took the second game, 7-2.

Feldman also had three hits with two RBIs and Michelin Barron had two hits with two RBIs. Andrea Amati and Amelia Dall each had two hits for MSD.

Michelle Mansfield-Horn pitched a one-hitter in the second game and had a home run.

Reprinted from Frederick News-Post, March 24, 2007

Deaf Seek NIS 750 Million for Subtitle Violation
By Ruth Sinai

The deaf community is suing Channel 2's Israeli News Company for NIS 750 million, for allegedly violating their legal obligation to provide closed captions (subtitles) and translation into sign language in their broadcasts.

The suit was filed by Doron Levy, a sign-language teacher and chairman of the Association of the Deaf in Israel, who asked the court to recognize it as a representative suit in the name of 50,000 people who are hearing-impaired and hard of hearing in Israel.

The Association of the Deaf says the News Company and franchisees Reshet and Keshet have been violating the law enacted in 2005, which obliges them to modify their broadcasts for deaf people. Levy is demanding an NIS 5,000 compensation for each of the 50,000 hearing-impaired persons from each franchisee, whom he accuses of "cynically and bluntly violating specific obligations imposed on them."

The captions and sign language law is based on the recognition that people with disabilities are equal to the rest of society and have a right to receive information and take part in public discourse, a considerable part of which takes place on the television screen.

The law sets a graded timetable for adjusting broadcasts for the hearing-impaired over a few years. It stipulates that in 2006 at least 40 percent of broadcasting time of recorded TV programs, and at least 50 percent of the recorded programs broadcast during prime time, must include closed captions. At least one central news edition in one channel must be translated to sign language every night, as well as one daily program for pre-school children, according to the law.

The Second Authority issued rules obliging the franchisees and the News Company to broadcast a certain number of programs with closed captions before the captions law came into effect.

However, the authority's annual reports and its legal adviser's response to the Association of the Deaf show that Channel 2 has not been keeping all the law's clauses.

The authority's legal adviser Jack Cohen admits that the News Company does not provide closed captions for even half of the news reports in its main edition and does not translate main news editions to sign language on a daily basis.

The News Company commented that it was now "upgrading and taking care of" the captions' issue.

Reprinted from Haaretz, Tel Aviv, Israel, January 11, 2007

CSUN Selects New Coach for Academic Bowl
DJ Kurs has been selected to be the new coach for the CSUN Academic Bowl team which will be competing in the 2008 Conference of the National Association of the Deaf.

Roz Rosen, Director of CSUN /NCOD explains in her letter that staff, students and alumni were asked to provide nominations and on the basis of this, the best candidate, David (DJ) Kurs, was selected.

DJ Kurs, a native of Southern California, attended mainstreamed schools in Southern California, is a freelance screenwriter living in Los Angeles. He was a Story Editor at Jersey Films from 1999-2003. Since then, he has written screenplays and documentary projects, including the award-winning digital short movie THE DEAF MAN. He also serves as the President of the Board of Directors of the Greater Los Angeles Agency of Deafness and is the Marketing Consultant to the Project Disability Access Theater Experience at the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles.

DJ was a member of the Gallaudet University College Bowl Teams of 1996 and 1998 and "brought home the bacon." I am enthusiastic about the new leadership and process which will be in place shortly. We will continue to have a coaching team, made up of long-time and valued members as well as some new ones, with DJ leading as the head coach.

CSI: NY Has Deaf Roles in "Silent Night"
"Silent Night" -- When an intruder breaks into the home of a deaf family and fatally shoots their teenage daughter, Mac works with the grieving mother who relies on her other senses to provide clues that will help catch her daughter's killer. Along the way she also provides assistance to Mac as he struggles in his relationship with Peyton. Meanwhile, Stella and Danny investigate when a professional ice skater is killed prior to competing in the U.S. ice skating regionals and whose body was found by her best friend, an Olympic skater who thinks she might be to blame for her death. Also, when Lindsay abruptly walks away from a crime scene and loses control of her emotions, the team questions her past, on CSI: NY, Wednesday, December 13 on the CBS Television Network. Rob Bailey, one of the series' producers, directed the episode from a teleplay by Samantha Humphrey and Peter M. Lenkov, one of the series' executive producers, and a story by Anthony E. Zuiker, one of the series' co-creators and executive producers.

Academy Award winner Marlee Matlin ("Children of a Lesser God") guest stars as Gina Mitchum, the grieving mother. Reigning U.S. national skating champion and Olympic silver medalist Sasha Cohen guest stars as Krista Palmer, a champion skater who discovers the body of her friend. Jerry Ferris ("The Bachelorette 3") guest stars as officer Marty Santucci, a police interpreter for Gina Mitchum. Ferris has been signing his entire life as both of his parents are hearing impaired. Claire Forlani ("Meet Joe Black") guest stars in a recurring role as the team's medical examiner and Mac Taylor's girlfriend, Dr. Peyton Driscoll.

Marlee Matlin Named News of the Week
Deaf Digest reports in their February 4, 2007 edition: News of the Week: Marlee Matlin times two; first - she is sign singing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl; chances are high that because she is a celebrity, the TV cameras will focus on her, instead of focusing away, as was the case in the past Super Bowl ASL renditions.

Secondly, she is making a movie - the plot very thinly patterned after the Gallaudet University football team. Her movie "Silent Knights" features a big time collegiate football coach who had a bad automobile accident but comes back to coach a "Division 3 deaf football program."

The only Division 3 deaf football program we know of is Gallaudet University.

Hamodia Magazine Prints Responses to Editor
There was a two-part article on "Hearing Their Silent World" which talks about the Jewish Deaf Community and the Jewish Hearing Impaired Community written by Rochel Isaacson on November 1, 2006 and November 8, 2006 Issue in the Hamodia newspaper. See JDCC News Jan/Feb 2007 Issue for more details.

In the December 20, 2006 Issue - Reader's Forum:
By Cassia Margolis

I read Hamodia's magazine article covering issues within the Jewish community for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Unfortunately, some of the information was incorrect. Also, it was put forth in a manner which gives the reader the wrong idea about some of the issues.

First of all, there are roughly 45-60 million Americans with hearing loss. The vast majority of these are people who are over 65 and who did not have hearing loss in their youth. I am attaching an excerpt from a current article from the news:

Signs of Hearing Loss: Do you often ask people to repeat themselves? Do you have trouble understanding women and children's voices? Do voices over the telephone sound muffled or distant? Do you hear popping or ringing in one or both ears? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may have hearing loss. Over 40 million people in the U.S. have some degree of hearing impairment, and most are over age 65.

That number is a bit conservative, but your numbers was way over what is usually quoted. Next, you related your large number to the number of people using ASL (American Sign Language). This made it appear as if only a very small number of people who are deaf use ASL. The reality is quite different.

For people who were born with or acquired a hearing loss that is substantial (severely hard of hearing to profoundly deaf), the actual percentage using ASL as adults is rather high. This is despite the fact that the vast majority were educated using spoken English.

There used to be a "90% rule" that was used to describe the education and language issues for the deaf. Ninety percent of all deaf children are born to hearing parents (actually, this is increasing), 90% of all deaf children are educated orally (not using sign language). By high school, 90% of the oral children will be using sign for their education (no loner oral) and 10 years after high school graduation, 90% of the oral graduates will be using some sign language.

So, instead of the percentage of people who use sign being a very small part of the total number of people with hearing loss, it is really a large percentage of the people who were born with (or suffered at a young age) severe or profound hearing loss.

Those statistics are "pre" cochlear implant statistics. But at least 35% of orally educated will fail out of oral programs before high school graduation. The success of implants varies greatly, and it is not just an issue of "being a good parent" and providing lots of opportunities.

My husband and I had a lovely little boy live with us for most of one school year. He had been implanted and was a student at CID in St. Louis. That is an oral school, and many of the students are implanted. After a couple of years he was labeled a "failure" and the school told his family he couldn't return. As a result, he ended up signing. He lived with us during a period of time when his family lived far from a program that offered sign language. He is a bright boy and even now goes a couple of hours a week for AVR (auditory verbal therapy - a specialized type of therapy for implant users) and his mother is very careful to make sure his mapping (program for the implant) is up to date.

In his school - which is for children who sign - there are many, many students with implants. Some have parents who don't believe you need to make a choice between spoken language and sign, and some who were considered "failures" in oral programs.

Also, cochlear implants do not make a child "hearing". It would be a closer approximation to say that they allow the child to function as if they still had a hearing loss, but less of one. Current research supports families using sign with children who have implants to enhance their language development.

I would like to present the other possibility - that the system of deaf and hearing-impaired education has "failed" them. The expectations are narrow and rigid, and there are a number of children who will not succeed despite early implant surgery and countless hours of therapy.

There are also children who do very well in oral programs, despite being deaf and having a more loosely designed intervention. My deaf son was a student at a program that only uses ASL. He had hearing aids, and I drove him to the local Easter Seals program for speech therapy. I did this because the Deaf School's audiologist had decided my son was too deaf to benefit from speech therapy.

Since we could afford hearing aids, I decided the play-based speech therapy wouldn't hurt him. By the end of preschool, we decided he would do better in an oral program, which is what he wanted. He has been in a mainstreamed classroom without an interpreter, ever since.

He isn't successfully oral because we made oral education a priority - we didn't. He isn't successful because we made sure he didn't' learn to sign first - ASL was his first language. He isn't successfully oral because we killed ourselves and were "the best parents" - what an awful insult to the many parents who do struggle to have their kids succeed orally and then the kids don't. He also isn't successfully oral because he is brilliant. It is a talent like playing the piano by ear. We were fortunate enough to be able to afford the "piano."

Meanwhile, we also have a wonderful deaf daughter - I should say "Deaf" - the capital "d" tells one that she is a person who uses ASL as her primary language.

When she was born, my son was almost 4, and already speaking English and interacting with a lot of different hearing people. When people realized my daughter was deaf (we had hearing aids for her when she was six months old), many people asked us if we were going to do the same program with Sarah as we did with Aaron. Of course, we replied "yes".

I knew they thought they were asking if we would teach her to speak, but what we were really saying is that we would sign with her, and provide her with hearing aids (although at a much younger age than her brother, who wasn't diagnosed until he was 2 1/2) and with some play-based speech therapy. We weren't deciding who she would be or what talents she would have.

We also decided not to have her implanted. That was a decision based on our experience. My husband is a physician, and we have our own issues with the surgery, ones that were not mentioned in your article - the same ones that prompted a couple of our physician friends to agree that it was not a good choice. But it is a choice, and one that each family needs to make on its own.

The real issue is that we are not "disappointed" in her not using much spoken English. Nor do we consider her to be a "failure", or do we consider her world to be "limited." Her deafness, is like our being Jewish, a very fulfilling part of her life, and one that has meaning and value.

In some ways, she has also had a better Jewish education than our son. Our son, who was able to attend a kindergarten program in the community without an interpreter, was not welcome at the local Jewish Day School for three years. When he was finally accepted, it was with a long list of conditions and ultimatums.

Sadly, our problems with the administration never resolved themselves, despite having good relations with most of the teachers, and we had to move him to the public school at the end of second grade. I will forever be grateful to one teacher who, when it was proposed that he be moved back a grade, told the principal that they couldn't do that because he was in the top half of the class, academically. (Although he may not have been the lowest ranked in the class, the teacher's assessment was a generous one.)

I currently work for the State. I help educate parents of children who have hearing loss. I see, first hand, the confusion that comes because of the misinformation families get about implants and signing. I have had to explain to parents that they need to try the hearing aids the state gave to their baby first, before looking at cochlear implants. One baby I work with will , hopefully, be implanted in the next few months. Another child, whose parents were told would need an implant doesn't. She is doing very well with her hearing aids.

The most orally "successful" child I work with was denied speech therapy services, because her speech is so far ahead of most hearing children. That child also is the best signer that I work with. All that information says is that these babies are different - and, just in case I need to tell you this, each is wonderful in his/her own right.

They will also all be successful - not because they speak or sign, but because their parents aren't afraid of any of the options. Nor do they see their children as potentially being "failures." These families will be able to enjoy their children regardless of whether they use more or less speech or sign. They are willing to wait and see their children's talents develop.

There is nothing terrible about being deaf or hard of hearing. Is it limiting? Possibly, in the same way that keeping kosher or Shabbat is. But it is also rewarding - sometimes in ways that are hard to explain to people from the "Outside World". This is true whether a person is oral or signs.

Author's Response:
In response to your assertion that my statistics detailing the numbers of deaf were misleading, my source for this documented data is the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD).

Moreover, you claim that benefits of the cochlear implants are hyped, specifically in my article, and may not prove optimally effective for all deaf. I believe that your statement would apply to all surgical procedures in which the outcome of success varies case by case.

As you have stated, sign language is valuable for those deaf people who opt to communicate in this manner. Nonetheless, the cochlear implant is a key medical breakthrough, and has an overall favorable record in enabling many severe-to-profoundly deaf who likewise have the right to choose to hear.

Rochel Isaacson

Hamodia Magazine Prints Another Response
December 27, 2006
Hamodia Hearing Their Silent World

To the Editor:
As a parent of a hearing-impaired child, I have been exposed to dozens of children with cochlear implants who are excelling in mainstream schools. These kids are forever grateful to current technology that has allowed them to be part of society.

I would like to direct this analogy in response to the article by Cassia Margolis in a recent issue of Hamodia.

An American couple recently moved to France. They were very loyal to their American culture and so when their son was born they decided to educate him only in the English language.

"Why does he need to speak French? And why do others feel we aren't good parents if our child can't communicate in French?, they wondered. "Being American is not a disability," they reasoned. And so they enrolled him in an English-speaking school and they did not consider their son a failure for failing to communicate in French. They did not consider it limiting at all!

I would like to conclude with a message of hatzlachah to all families educating their hearing-impaired children. May you have lots of luck using whichever method works best for your individual child.

M.R. Brooklyn, N.Y.

Deaf Genetics Project at CSUN/UCLA
CSUN and UCLA has received a 3-year project funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute to learn about what deaf and hard-of-hearing people think about the appropriateness and usefulness of genetic testing for deafness.

As mentioned in their brochure, "In our study, we offer genetic counseling and genetic testing for two genes (Connexin 26 and Connexin 30) because they are known to be a common cause of sensorineural deafness ("nerve deafness"). The results of our study will provide much needed information about the impact of genetic testing for deafness on individuals, the deaf community, and society. Our results will also help to determine how to improve the provision of genetic services to deaf and hard-of-hearing adults."

CRITERIA: No matter if you are the only person or one of many people in your family who is deaf or hard-of-hearing, you may be eligible to participate as long as you have been deaf or hard-of-hearing since birth or early childhood. You must also be at least 18 years old to participate in this project.

All the testing and counseling is done at no charge and can take place at either University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) or at California State University, Northridge (CSUN).

There are different types of deafness. The primary focus of our study is on the sensorineural type. It is important to first learn if your deafness is of this type. We would ask you to have some audiological tests that will be conducted by our research team to learn if you have this type of deafness. You will be asked to fill out a questionnaire on the same day.

Through your participation in this study, you may be able to learn if your deafness is due to Connexin 26 or Connexin 30 genes.

Contact: Christina Palmer, Ph.D. and Patrick Boudreault, Ph.D. - Principal Investigators (310) 794-6395 Voice, (310) 267-2502 TTY/Voice, (310) 267-2502 VP, or visit their website for more details, http://www.deafgeneticsproject.org