Jewish Deaf Tidbits |
Deaf Digest mentioned the story of Simon Roffe, a resident in Maryland. While enrolled at a school in New York, he had a job delivering auto parts. His employer gave Roffe a quarter every time Roffe had to make a delivery, telling him to confirm that the delivery had been made. Since Roffe is deaf and could not use the phone, he would put these quarters in a coffee jar. One day two weeks later, the employer asked Roffe why he never made the calls. Roffe showed a coffee jar full of quarters and explained that he was deaf and could not use the voice phone. His boss was aghast as he had thought Roffe was a foreigner with a strange voice accent! Roffe, 21 and former president of NCSY's 'Our Way', was recently mentioned in the 'New York Daily News' for advocating Cued Speech as "a golden passport to new worlds". He says that while "ASL is crucial to maximizing one's social life, learning to cue early on helps in reading, academics and professional achievement... Without cueing, There's no way on earth I'd be where I am today." He is currently enrolled at New York University's Stern School of Business.
British Jewish Deaf Move In New Building!
After 49 years at their Cazenove Road headquarters, the Jewish Deaf Association in
London moved into its 
brand new headquarters
and Community Centre in North Finchley. The new building, named Julius Newman House after
Julius Newman (deceased) who originated the idea of a centre for Deaf Jewish people,
offers a games room with table tennis, pool table and library, technology centre with
computers, communal rooms for education and training including signing and lipreading
classes and will also host the Koleinu, a social and cultural group for Deaf Jewish
children and youth. Also planned is social events and a Day Care Centre serving kosher
meals. Evelyn Gee, daughter of the late Julius Newman, headed the several years of
planning, searching, and eventually the 15month long building project which cost 600,000
pounds (about $930,000 U.S.).
Deaf Jewish Boys Sought
For Traveling Theatre Group
Judy Wisch, California I Minstrels Manager with the Interlocken Center for Experiential Learning is searching male high
school students who are fluent in ASL and interested in theater to join a Deaf and hearing
theatre troupe who will give performances in northern California between July 2nd and
August 5th. Scholarship is available for qualified applicants. For information on the
project, visit their website at http://www.interlocken.org For more information, contact
Wisch at 603/478-3166 TTYNoice, 603/478-5260 FAX or e-mail to mail@interlocken.org
Israeli Travel Agency Can Assist With Deaf Visitors
Keli Tours in Israel has a department called "Tourists with
Special Needs". Manager Eli Meiri says she has served clients with disabilities for
15 years and is familiar with the needs of accessibility for people with several kinds of
disabilities. Keli Tours provides tours including tours with" sign language
interpreters and special equipment for 7 nights or longer in Israel as well as to Jordan,
Egypt and the Near East. They can also arrange visits to Israeli centers of interest for
assistive equipment such as equipment manufacturing plants, special healing treatments
including full day to Mineral Spas and mud treatments at the Dead Sea along with
historical and religious sightseeing tours. "We'd be very happy to suggest our best
services to the people of the Jewish Deaf Community Center". For information, contact
Meiri at Keli Tours Ltd,19 Hacharoshet Street, Raanana 43656, Israel, 972/9-7409408 FAX,
or email to info@keli-tours.co.il
Many NAD Recipients Are Jewish!
The National Association of the
Deaf (NAD) in Silver Spring, MD recently announced recipients of 
several
NAD awards which will be presented during the NAD 44th biennial Conference at the San
Antonio Convention Center in San Antonio, TX on July 7-11th. Among the Jewish recipients:
Astrid Goodstein and T. Alan Hurwitz who will receive the NAD Distinguished Service
Awards; Jamie Berke for the Golden Rose Award, Alex Fleischman for the Knights of the
Flying Fingers Award, Dot & Sol Schwartzman for the Frederick C. Schreiber
Distinguished Service Award, and Kenneth Rothschild & Mitchell D. Travers who will
receive the Spirit of the NAD Award.
Sonnenstrahl to be
JDC Convention Keynote Speaker
Jewish Deaf Congress (JDC), has announced that
the new keynote speaker during the JDC convention in Universal City, CA on Wednesday,
August 12th is Dr. Debbie Sonnenstrahl, who retired from Gallaudet 
University as professor emeritus in 1996 after 32
years. Born Deaf to a hearing family in Baltimore, MD, Sonnenstrahl attended a Catholic
school for the Deaf in the 1940's when no Jewish or even public school for deaf
pre-schoolers was available in the Baltimore area. She first learned sign language when
she was 17 and had enrolled at Gallaudet, earning her Bachelors degree in 1958. Since then
she has gone on to obtain her Masters degree in Art History from Catholic University in
1965 and a doctorate in Museum Studies and Deafness Education from New York University in
1987. She is very active in museum accessibility and showcasing Deaf Artists'
contributions, sewed on several museum advisory committees including the Smithsonian and
American Association of Museums, given presentations on Deaf artists and museum
accessibility and is now working on a book about American Deaf Artists from 1760 to the
present. She is mother of two Deaf children and four Deaf grandchildren.
Jewish CODA Appears At Columbia
Housing For Jewish Deaf
a lovely residence in a quiet suburban area ...
equipped with the latest technology for deaf residents. It is staffed by deaf counselors
and a senior counselor who is hearing and proficient in ASL. At present we have an
opening, a private bedroom in this home... Should an interested individual wish to contact
me, l would be pleased to go into more details. As a parent I am extremely pleased with
the care and understanding afforded my son and recommend The Jewish Foundation for Group
Homes as a very unique organization." Information from a brochure Fineman enclosed
with his letter indicates that the program, which is an UJA Federation Beneficiary and
United Way agency, serves persons over 18 years old who have mental retardation, mobility
or deafness/hearing impairments, learning or other developmental disabilities or chronic
mental illness. For information on this housing opportunity, contact Vivian Bass,
executive director at JFGH, 6101 Montrose Road, Suite 200, Rockville, MD 208524816, TTY:
301 /984-3449, Voice: 301 /984-3839 and FAX: 301/770-4712.
All Three College Bowl Coaches Are Jewish
Students from California State University, Northridge (CSUN), Gallaudet University, and National Technical Institute of the Deaf (NTID) will compete again at the College Bowl for the sixth time during the National Association of the Deaf (NAD)'s 44th Biennial Conference in San Antonio, TX on Thursday, July 9th. Among the contestants who are Jewish: California's Erick Posner representing CSUN and David Joshua Kurs representing Gallaudet. All three college coaches are Jewish: Barbara Boyd for CSUN, Robert Weinstock for Gallaudet and Vicki Hurwitz for NTID.
Bragg Talks About Marvelous German Play
'Deaf People In Hitler's Europe' conference at Gallaudet University
in Washington, D.C. in June. In 1996,while with the Deaf German Theater as guest director,
Bragg was involved in putting together a one-act play 'Golden Wedding' which is the story
of a deaf couple in Germany getting ready to celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary.
They recall, with tears and laughter, a lifetime of shared dreams and unshared secrets...
how they survived Germany's Third Reich and saw both the rise and the fail of the Berlin
Wall.
Bloom Celebrates Bar Mitzvah In Maryland
Heights last March. Born profoundly Deaf, "he was
able to embrace both his Jewish and deaf identities with two recitations of the
prayer," writer Melinda Greenberg writes, "Jason -J.B. to his friends - first
recited the Shema in Hebrew. Then, in a show of support and deference for the deaf friends
who gathered around him on his special day, he signed, 'Pay Attention O Israel'. Temple
Oheb Shalom is a reform congregation. "When he's an adult, " says Sheryl Cooper,
director of Towson University's sign language program, "I think Jason will look back
on this day and realize how important it was for his family and the deaf community. A lot
of deaf children have token services for their bar mitzvahs. Jason had a real bar
mitzvah..."
Deaf Singles Gather In Delaware