E Pluribus Unum

    I just arrived home from the Jewish Deaf Congress convention in Universal City, and I must admit that it was quite an experience! Like most kids my age, I enrolled in the Teens program and there I met many new people my age, above and below. After five days, I was impressed by the coordination of the program, but I realized that we, as young Jewish Deaf adults, still have a long way to go.

    Despite the best efforts of a few programs nationwide, no organization has yet to bring together the several thousand young Jewish Deaf adults living in the United States and Canada. Our hearing counterparts have had enormous success with their own organizations, such as the B'nai B'rith Youth Organization (BBYO) and the United Synagogue Youth (USY).They have shown that it is possible to have a Jewish organization focused on youth.

    Why, then, can't we do the same? Or to put it better, why haven't we done so? One obvious reason is that we are far-flung apart, and it is hard to get people working together from such vast distances. Another reason may be that both BBYO and USY gain support from thousands of synagogues all across the country, while we have only a few Deaf synagogues.

    But, on countless occasions, I have seen people working together trying to create some kind of organization for young Jewish Deaf adults (and kids, too). I praise their efforts. I wouldn't mind creating an impromptu group for young Jewish Deaf in my area. The only problem is that I feel like I'm the only Jewish Deaf teenager in San Diego County!

    That's the root of the problem - we need to expand and try to reach every single young Jewish Deaf adult so that none of them will ever feel left out. After all, did you know that Judaism has one of the highest rates of conversions into other religions? And with Jewish Deaf people, that rate is even higher. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why.

    Yet, the Deaf have a remarkable history of being able to bring together deaf people from all over the world. Indeed, they embody the American ideal: E Pluribus Unum. In Many, One. Let's do the same for us young Jewish Deaf adults!

    So, as I wrap up this short summer article, I want to leave you with a thought: What do you think is best for us young Jewish Deaf adults? What can we do? Again, I encourage people to reply to this. But no one has ever replied, so I'm beginning to think that no one reads this! I cannot let just one opinion speak for all. Perhaps a website? A pen pal program? Regional get-togethers? The only way we can improve our future is if we all pitch in our thoughts and ideas. After all, two or more heads are better than one, right?

    As we return to school and work after the long days of the summer, let us reaffirm our faith during the High Holy Days and let us ask God for His forgiveness. Let us celebrate a new year, in which we can plan a better tomorrow for all Jewish Deaf! L'Chaim!

    About three years ago when I was about to start my freshman year, my Dad asked if I would like to join my temple's study group. Every week we would meet at one student's home and discuss whatever we would be studying for that year. Admittedly, it didn't seem that interesting until Dad told me the end result would be the students who were entering their senior year would go to Israel for the summer. I was sold on it!

    In order to promote further Jewish studies for high-school students, the Oregon Board of Rabbis made an offer with all congregations in Oregon. If students would fulfill three requirements, the Board of Rabbis would pay 80 percent of the costs for a trip to Israel. These three requirements were: Attend a temple study group, amending type of religious service at least once or twice a month, and doing a minimum of 30 hours of community service per month.

    My deafness made it difficult to attend services, but luckily I had access to one of the few Jewish interpreters in my state and possibly the country. This AMAZING woman, Holly Hoffnung, had a lot of experience with Havurah Shalom: She helped me develop signs for all the prayers that I signed at my Bar Mitzvah way back in March '95. So, all it really took was a little bit of planning and a lot of commitment on both of our parts to attend services.

    As the three years went by, and the date of my trip got closer and closer, I faced a new obstacle: Finding the right tour program. Only one program called Young Judaea would be willing to process my application as they would any other and not reject my application solely on my deafness. Now, the only barrier in my way was to find a qualified person who could be my interpreter. Some time later, during the middle of my junior year, Young Judaea (YJ) found a woman from Chicago who would be absolutely perfect- Hadar Danny was not only fluent in conversationalist ASL and spoken Hebrew, she was a former chanicha (camper) of YJ! Hadar and I communicated through E-mail and TTY calls in order to get to know each other as well as possible before the trip started.

    Then, on June 28, 1998, I arrived at a hotel near Newark International Airport to meet Hadar and the rest of my group. My only fear at this point was whether or not the rest of the kids would accept me. These fears were erased as soon as everyone found out I knew sign language! We boarded an El-AI plane bound for Rome. After 4 days in Rome, we were going to take a three day boat ride to Halfa, Israel.

    We flew into Ben Gurion Airport on a Friday afternoon, and drove to an Army recreational camp in Ashkelon, where we spent our first Shabbat. The next five and a half weeks were spent driving all over the entire country. Young Judaea's "base camp" was at the Hadassah Youth Center in the Mt. Scopus campus of Hebrew University, Jerusalem. We stayed there quite often.

    Traveling all over Israel, really made me enjoy the beauty of the country's culture and climate. I even got a chance to experience the Deaf culture there. One weekend, I stayed with a family in Tel Aviv, who had a boy about my age who was Deaf named Shaul Gor Ziv. He knew enough ASL to make communication easy for us, and he taught me some ISL! Staying with that family and a chance meeting with a group of Deaf Israelis at Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem really made me aware of the situation of Deaf rights in that country: Israel allows Deaf citizens to join the army on a volunteer basis. However, the majority of Deaf people in the armed forces are simply trained for filing paperwork and driving the jeeps. Very few are permitted to enter combat training. Another thing I learned was that most Israeli Deaf do not have the free access to interpreters as we Americans enjoy under the ADA--in fact, Shaul's mother had to go all the way to the Israeli Supreme Court just to get him an interpreter for school.

    As I said before, we traveled all over Israel. We snorkeled in the Red Sea in Eilat; climbed Masada to see the sunrise; floated in the Dead Sea; rafted and kayaked down the river Jordan; we ate at a restaurant in Rosh Hanikra, just ten or 15 feet from the Israel- Lebanon boarder; and went to the Wailing Wall and King David's Tower in Jerusalem. We visited David Ben Gurion's home at Kibbutz Sde Boker, and his tomb at nearby Ben Gurion National Park. We went to Mt. Herzel, and saw the tombs of Herzel, Rabin, Golda Meir, and many fallen Israeli soldiers. We went to Yad Vashem and mourned the memory of the six million. We went to Tel Aviv and saw Rabin Square, where Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated. We went rappelling 50 meters down a natural rock arch in Keshet National Park...