Dear Sharon,
     I wanted to say thanks for a lovely evening before I forget to, my family enjoyed the seder as much as I did; everyone we met was extremely nice and I literally had to pull my daughter away from all her new friends. It was all in all, a lovely experience. I hope to remain informed of other events that come up in the JDCC. Have an enjoyable Passover holiday, and once again, thanks.

Linda Bernett
Culver City, CA

Dear Adam Stone,

Just a few days ago I was in LA, and saw your piece on Purim. It seems well done.

One item that caught my eye was your take on the tashen, really meaning pockets.

Your suggestion that it was "intentionally distorted to hamantash" is hardly plausible.

Why would we honor the villain with a delicious and primary Purim food named after him? And why would we give Amalek the very opposite of what we are mandated to do? The idea that we swallow is very very far-fetched.

It is clear that all this came from an error, a very serious error. The Hebrew way of saying man-tash (you correctly identified this) is ha-man-tash, meaning - the mantash.

The error came about when this was written as per usual without vowels, and some people, less than well-schooled, thought it read as hamantash.

Can you imagine us giving any form of dignity to people who were out to kill us off? It could not happen.

I wish you well, and much success in all your efforts and endeavors. With best Pesah wishes,

Rabbi Reuven P. Bulka
rbulka@cyberus.ca

Hi,

    I read your story in this past issue of JDCC and I am very curious as to why this gentleman, Joseph Schertz was not allowed into the United States at Ellis Island because he was deaf. First of all, how did they know he was deaf, unless the mother had to tell them, and why refusal of all deaf people into this country. And, how did he get in through the Hispanic Quota, which I am curoius what that even is. I am a sign language student, and have tried to research this with all of the books I have, and couldn't find anything related to this. If it is not too much trouble, could you please answer me, or let me know as to how I can find out this information. Thanks so much.

Brenda Schertz, daughter of Joseph Schertz responds:

Dear Susan,

    My sister Jackie wrote my father's story for the most recent issue of JDCC. We originally thought our dad couldn't enter the U.S. because he was deaf. At Ellis Island they would give physical exams and we assume they tested his hearing. Later, we discussed with our uncle about this. He said that it wasn't because he was deaf but it divas because the U.S. had a quota on how many people from Eastern Europe could enter the U.S. At that time the quota was filled and they couldn't accept more people from Eastern Europe. There were not many people emigrating from South America and quota from the area hasn't been filled. So my dad and his mother went to Venezuela and applied for emigration to the U.S. through Venezuela rather than Europe. Ellis Island was accepting applications from South America. Many things are vague about our family's history but we believe it was a combination of both factors were involved in rejection of my dad's application in the first place.

    If you have found more information about this subject please do share that width me. Do you know if other Deaf people were admitted through Ellis Island with the knowledge that they were deaf? Thanks.

Brenda Schertz
Bschertz@aol.com

Hi,

    Currently I am a student at Catonsville (MD) Community College in their Deaf Interpreter course. I am doing a semesterend paper on the Deaf Jewish Community, with the sub-topics "Legal/Political" and "Language/Communication". Would you please email back to me any information you have on these subjects? Thank you so very much.

Also, I found the description of your organization very interesting. May God bless your efforts.

Cathy Ploch@aol.com

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