Israel In Time Of Crisis
    As news of tragedy occurring nearly daily in Israel reaches us, message has gone out for every Jew to unite and support with words and action our brothers and sisters in Israel (and other countries like France and Argentina): Prayers... showing support by visiting Israel or purchasing products made in Israel .... And Tzedaka - Charity. This message included a "limited list of Jewish Organizations that help Jewish Deaf in Israel. Please support them generously...": Shemaya, a religious school for Deaf children at 121 Rothchild, Petach Tikvah, Israel; YUIA Jewish Heritage for the Deaf at PO Box 16095, Jerusalem 91160 Israel; Association of the Deaf in Israel at Mavo Hamatmid Street, Jerusalem 94593 Israel, also c/o Jackie Spivak, 51 Netach Yerushalayim, St. Dekel Efrat 90435 Israel, and the OUR WAY Israel Fund at 11 Broadway, New York, NY 10004. You also could e-mail President Bush to encourage him to continue the war on terrorism and to support Israel's right to fight terrorism. His e-mail address is President@whitehouse.gov

Gregory Pollock Has Bar Mitzvah
    Tribune-Review reported that Gregory Pollock who is profoundly Deaf is set to recite the Hebrew readings for his bar mitzvah. Pollock of McCandless, PA who is a seventh-grader at Carson Middle School turned 13 on February 19th. His father, Sanford Pollock says that Gregory received a lot of special services, privately and through the North Allegheny School District. "He does phenomenally well," Sanford Pollock said. "He has very, very good speech, and we've done a lot of Hebrew tutoring." Sanford Pollock said hearing Jews have an advantage that a person with deafness would not have. "If you go to a synagogue and you hear the same prayers over and over again, you just know them... (For Gregory) it's all work. And he's done it himself." Gregory's synagogue, Tree of Life in Squirrel Hill, has provided a sign language interpreter for his Hebrew class, and, through the years, he has attended summer camps for deaf children at Camp Ramah as part cf the Kesher Program for deaf children.) "All the staff are signing. All the counselors are deaf. It's beautiful because it's like a family," Sanford said. Many of Gregory's interpreter friends from the camp, some from as far away as Baltimore, are coming into Pittsburgh for Gregory's service, he adds, finding interpreters who can sign from Hebrew is difficult. "There's nobody really in this town who can interpret from Hebrew to American Sign Language." Gregory explains that reading from the Torah was not as hard for him as people think. "The reading part is not the hard part. It's kind of hard for me to hear and everything, but I learned it somehow. It took me a while, but I have some good interpreters," he said. "I'm pretty proud. I'm really happy that I can get to be here this day."

Micha Program Helps Preschoolers with Hearing Loss
    After Reuma WPIZman, wife of former Israel president Ezer Weizman and Sheila Kurtzer, wife of US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer attended a dinner at Sheraton Tel Aviv hotel to raise funds for the Micha preschool, a supplemental preschool program located in Ramat Aviv founded by Dr. Ezra Korine in 1953 to diagnose hearing loss at an early age to enable early intervention, the hotel has adopted Micha. In February, the Jerusalem Post reported a group of children with their nursery teacher were at the hotel learning to make hamentashen for Purim party. Eyal Rosenberg was on hand to help the children, 3-5 years old with the pre-holiday baking preparations. Kurtzer, the US ambassador's wife, says it is the first time she's ever made the pastry. "These are the best hamentashen that I've ever made," she says. The children are a mix of both secular and religious from Ashkelon, Rishon Lezion, Rehovot, Yavne and Ashdod. Most children attend the Micha program twice a week and attend regular preschools locally for the rest of the week. Micha also has branches in Haifa, Jerusalem and Beersheba, Dr. Dorit Ben-Itzhak, Micha's educational director says the children are taught both sign language and regular conversation. "This way they can benefit both from meeting other children with hearing loss and from learning with hearing children," Ben-Itzhak says. They also have sessions with a language pathologist along with art, music, occupational and animal therapy. Some have hearing aids or cochlear implants. Micha offers a testing and fitting service as these aids are very expensive, Ben-Itzhak adds. Parents watch and participate. They also say that children from Arabic-speaking backgrounds are assisted, Although cost of running Micha is high, parents are charged about 10% of these costs. They say that no child, no matter his socio-economic background or the situation, should be deprived of help. 30% of funds come from the government and the rest through donations.

Challenge Of Being Both Jewish And Deaf
       Communication obstacles make it difficult for Deaf Israelites to have strong Jewish identities. "When it comes to Judaism, [hearing-impaired Jews] really have been neglected for many, many years," says Rabbi Chanoch Yeres, programming director of the deaf program run by Yeshiva University Alumni in Israel. The program was founded in 1989 to teach rabbis and educators how they can help people with hearing disabilities and to help Jews with hearing difficulties better identify with their religious and cultural traditions. Yeres, who can hear but knows Israeli sign language, says he has seen an "outpouring of interest in Jewish identity" from hearing-impaired Jews. "They want to be accepted as part of the community... Not in terms of becoming religious, but in terms of knowing what it's all about." They are looking for religious leaders to initiate discussions and answer their questions with out condescension. They thirst to know more about basic Jewish traditions and history, asking questions about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the holidays, says Yeres, a former New Yorker. A group of deaf and hard-of-hearing young adults from the US got a chance to connect to their Judaism last month on the first "birthright Israel" trip to include participants with hearing disabilities. The trip was run by Our Way, an American group for hearing-impaired Jews affiliated with the National Jewish Council for the Disabled. But Jewish identity maybe an even more glaring issue outside Israel, where many other identities compete for attention and assimilation poses a greater threat. Trip leaders comment on the way the commonality of deafness lifts social barriers that might have precluded such a conversation in the hearing world. But while the overriding bond of hearing impairment may link Jews on the trip, it may also be one of the causes of intermarriage among Jewish Deaf people. Intermarriage holds a lot of attraction for American Jews who are hearing impaired, says Batya Jacob, program director for Our Way and organizer of the birthright trip. The combination of limited Jewish knowledge and the pull of Deaf Culture results in a high level of assimilation, she says. There is no synagogue in Israel that translates its services for the deaf on a regular basis, says Yeres. His synagogue in Jerusalem's Yemin Moshe provides translations a few times a year. Hearing-impaired Jews who have little Jew ish knowledge differ significantly from those who have comparable knowledge but hear perfectly, says Witty. Those who can hear always nave the option of attending a lecture or chatting with a rabbi. "There are choices available to the hearing unaffiliated Jew. But there are very few choices for the deaf unaffiliated Jew," he says. But while maintaining a Jewish identity can be a struggle outside Israel, some say hearing-impaired Israeli Jews are exposed to Jewish concepts from such a young age that developing a Jewish identity is only natural.

Celebrating Passover At Gallaudet
    Washington Post staff writer Caryle Murphy reported on March 27th the experience of Jewish students sitting around the table. Along with the seder plate, a matzoh plate and kiddush cup, there was the 'Signs of the Seder' for the group of students at Gallaudet are conducting the Seder. This pamphlet "had drawings showing the appropriate way to express what was happening in sign language..." "Since this is an all-deaf-led Seder, this will be an ultimate experience for me," Sophie Shifra-Gold, 20, a sophomore said during Monday night's rehearsal. "Where I come from, all are hearing and I have to deal with my mother interpreting." With the entire Seder being signed, Shifra-Gold adds, "the communication is clear for everyone to understand." This Seder is part of the revival of Jewish student activism that began with establishment in January of a campus chapter of Hillel, the national Jewish student organization which now has about 25 members. "Being Jewish at Gallaudet can be lonely and isolating at times," Micah S. Brown, 21, a sophomore from Portland, Oregon is quoted in an e-mail, "Being active in Hillel helps reassure myself that I am not the only observant Deaf Jew on campus or in the world." Brown, president of the Hillel chapter, says while it is easy for most Jewish college students to find a Jewish community off campus, for Gallaudet's Jewish students, estimated to number between 50 and 150, "it is far more difficult . . . because of the language barrier that exists between the Deaf and hearing worlds."

Brandeis-Bardin Offers Summer Program for Deaf College Students
      Gallaudet Hillel students will be the first group to participate in the Brandeis-Bardin Collegiate Institute's Summer Program in Simi Valley California from July 17 to August 11, 2002. Contact Rebecca Pepkowitz rpepkowitz@myexcel.com, orjewishgallaudet@hillel.org if you are interested in joining. There may be a few spots left for young Jewish Deaf adults ages 18-26. To learn more about BBCI, see their website at www.brandeis-bardin.org

Deaf German Painter
    We printed a news blurb on this story in JDCC News March/April issue. Credit goes to the author of this article, Mark Zaurov, who resides in Germany.

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