Have they even considered Deaf Jewish people, a sub-minority within their own Jewish Community? How many temples provide interpreted Shabbat services? Is it because we are not interested in mainstreaming in their Temples or its too complicated to introduce ourselves? Whose responsibility is it - the hearing leaders, or ours?

Does the Jewish Community know that we exist? What do we really want them to do for us? We need to know what we want before we can even ask the Jewish community to help.

A current controversial issue has arisen in the Jewish sign language interpreting community: do interpreters need to be familiar with Judaism, do they need to know Hebrew? Should they sign in English or Hebrew, and how do they decide on standard signs for specific Jewish words?

It would be great if there were more Deaf Rabbis and leaders. However before this becomes a reality, we would need to educate Seminaries, Yeshivas and Jewish institutions to provide sign language classes in their curriculum to encourage their students to become more aware and sensitive of the Deaf Community? Hopefully some of these future hearing Jewish leaders will become Rabbis, Educators or Interpreters in the Jewish Deaf Community.

For someone like me who has three deaf children, I want my children and all Jewish deaf children across the country to have as much exposure to Judaism and Hebrew as possible. But, who will teach  them?