Nominated by Joan Hewitt, an audiologist for an 'Oticon Focus On People Award', Adam Stone of Del Mar, CA came in second place in the Full-Time Student category. The Union-Tribune in San Diego reported in August that Adam, who was diagnosed as profoundly deaf when he was 1 month old, considers himself as an "average 20 year-old college student deciding what to do in life." "Hewitt says that "Adam has overcome so much with an attitude that is unbelievable. He has such a joy for living..." He hopes to pursue a career in public relations, advertising consulting, international relations or law and used the $500 that came with the award "to pay off some of his debt from a recent trip to Europe." Adam's mother describes him as a "great example of someone who has overcome a disability." He is currently a junior at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and recently competed in the College Bowl on NTID's team during the National Association of the Deaf Conference in Washington, D.C. Nancy Palmere, marketing manager at Oticon who manufactures hearing aids, says award winners are so focused on achieving their goals, "it's like they don't have an impairment at all." This was the seventh year for the Oticon Focus on People Awards. More than 200 people were nominated in five categories.

Deaf Angry Over Shortage Of Pagers
    The Ha'aretz reported in August that the Israeli Deaf community is furious with the defense department's decision to distribute 1,000 text pagers instead of 2,000 that Deaf Community leaders claim they were promised. These pagers, which receive text messages by flashing a light or vibrating and is used to convey instructions in event of a national emergency such as an Iraqi missile strike. The report estimates there are 5,000 individuals who are Deaf in Israel.

Marlee Matlin To Appear In 'Bad Ass'
    Actress Marlee Matlin is producing and starring in 'Bad Ass', an action movie that "satirizes recent corporate scandals". She plays as a "quiet" accountant who stumbles upon damning info," says Variety reporter Devin Faraci in a report titled 'Could You Repeat That?' "Her boss tries to rub her out, but she survives and comes back for revenge. The idea is to get a bunch of big name stars to have cameos as corporate execs who meet violent and bizarre deaths." Bad Ass will be directed by Simon Gornick, whose debut movie, The Art of Revenge comes out this fall starring Stephan Jenkins, lead singer of the utterly insufferable crap rock band Third Eye Blind.

Jewish Maccabiah Games Uses 'Signs'?
    Barry Strassler with Deaf Digest reported that in an article in August, the Baltimore Sun in writing about the Jewish Maccabiah Games, mentioned that Israeli basketball coach Yorram Fenster while he is not deaf, used sign language to coach his players in a basketball game. Is he just paranoid about having his signals stolen? No. In Israel, Fenster coaches the national deaf Israeli basketball team so his sign language came in handy!

Awake Up, Jewish Sign E-Mail Discussion Group!
    Rabbi David Kay, in his recent posting on the JSDG says that the group has "fallen into a deep sleep" but that now "I'd like to wake it up again with a VERY important project..." Kay, who was ordained as a Conservative rabbi last May and currently serves as rabbi with Ma'ayan Conservative Synagogue in Naples, Florida. "Of course, at the top of my agenda for this NEW Jewish community is issues of access..." He calls on members of JSDG to contribute feedback on "... what a synagogue needs to be truly accessible. That includes programming, building design, lighting, educational philosophy . . . the works. We'll share our ideas in this forum, and work together to refine them." You can e-mail Rabbi Kay at rabbi@maayan-naples.org

Ellen Roth Raises $4,000 In Bicycle Fundraiser
    Ellen Roth recently informed Ira Rothenberg that she raised over $4,000 cycling in the 1 st Heartland AIDS Ride in July 2000 from Minneapolis to Chicago... a 525-mile trip over 6 days. She raised $4,600 in a second event in June 2001 bicycling 575 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 7 days. "Recently I was supposed to do the last Vaccine AIDSRide from Montreal Canada to Port land Maine," she shares. "Unfortunately Palotta Teamworks cancelled that ride due to low numbers of registered riders. I didn't go. Some of my donors get refunds upon request... I'm glad I did the work to raise over $8,400 for this cause. I have lost over 20 people to AIDS. Especially my lifelong childhood friend Bruce Hlibok for 30 years. He is also gone. I am glad that I did something like this instead of being passive and sad about the disease... I had similar response to the WTC [World Trade Center] disaster, when it happened before my sister and my eyes, WTC collapsed and all that. We volunteered on ground zero for 11 days to feed the firemen who worked around the clock to save the victims. Unfortunately, nothing much were recovered... I believe in working with the community, society and humanity to achieve what we want to achieve..."

Matlin's First Book For Children On Market
    Simon & Schuster recently published actress Marlee Matlin's first book 'Deaf Child Crossing'. Geared at children 8-12 years old, the book is based on Matlin's own experiences growing up as a deaf child in Chicago: in the book she brings to life 9-year-old Megan who befriends her new neighbor, Cindy. "What makes this novel different is that it's the deaf child who seems to open up worlds for the hearing one," NewYork Post's reporter Alex Blair says in September, "When they go off to camp together, Megan meets another deaf girl, and it's Cindy who feels left out in the cold... This is a nice story, sensitively told, which is more about the friendship between preteen girls than it is about struggling with a handicap."

Works Of Deaf Jewish Postage Stamp
Collagist Shown
    Renate K. Alpert shared word that forty works done by Deaf postage stamp collagist Paul Edlin spanning the past twenty years will be displayed at Andrew Edlin Gallery on West 20th Street in New York. Edlin, who was born in 1931, started working in mixed media 17 years ago and has developed an unique style in which all of his images are made up of thousands of tiny cut up postage stamps. Each project, which is painstakingly slow and precise and takes up to three months to complete, resembles mosaic tiles reflecting scenes of people and mythological figures, animals and objects suggesting a mystical personal cosmology. Edlin, now 71, has been a reclusive person partly because of a severe life-long hearing problem and for many years rarely showed his art publicly. The display, 'PAUL EDLIN; A RESTROSPECTIVE" runs September 4 through October 12th.

Gallaudet Book Title Is Popular
    'Surviving in Silence: A Deaf Boy in the Holocaust', said to be one of the most sought after titles at the Deaf Way II conference in Washington, D.C., is now available at a 20% discount from Gallaudet University. Izrael Zachariah Deutsch, who later changed his name to Harry Imre Dunai, was born in Komjata, Czechoslovakia, in 1934. During World War II, nine-year-old Izrael found himself doubly at risk for being deaf and Jewish. His resolve to survive is apparent in his account of living in the Klauzal Square ghetto of Budapest, where he and other victims had been herded by the Arrow Cross fascists.

Philadelphia Celebrates its 95th Anniversary
    Philadelphia Hebrew Association of the Deaf will host their 95th Anniversary Banquet on Saturday, October 19th, 2002 at 7:00 p.m. to midnight. It will be held at the DoubIeTree Hotel 9401 Roosevelt Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA For more information, contact Ellen Schreck, Chair, 215-665-8154 after 5:00 p.m. or E-mail at Phillyschreck@aol.com or Bernice Raskin, 215-464-2384.

Esther Slotnick Passes Away
    Founding member of Congregation Emanu El and a member of the auxiliary board of the Center for Hearing and Speech in Houston, Texas since its inception, Esther Beverly Joselle Slotnick passed away at a nursing home in August. She was 99 years old. Mother of Joseph Slotnick, current president of Temple Beth Solomon for the Deaf in Southern California, she became involved in the Houston deaf community after her son was stricken by spinal meningitis left him deaf when he was 3 years old. "There was no support group in Houston at the time, no one for her to turn to," her daughter Jane Freeman told Houston Chronicle, "There really wasn't any place for young mothers to go and know they weren't alone and that there was hope." The Slotnick family came to the United States from Russia in 1904 when she was 2. Her father, a geophysicist and mathematician, was recruited by Humble Oil & Refining Co., now Exxon Mobil, and the family moved to Houston. She studied at Radcliffe College, was fluent in five languages and taught Hebrew at Congregation Emanu El for nearly half a century. Services was held at Emanu El Memorial Park. The family requests that contributions be made to the Center for Hearing and Speech or the Congregation Emanu El Esther Slotnick Hebrew Award Fund.

Jewish Deaf Association Shabbat Services
    Abigail Miller of England wrote in Totally Jewish publication on July 24th, "that members of the Jewish Deaf Association (JDA) have attended the organization's second unique signed shabbat service at Finchley Synagogue. The prayers were organized by Douglas Silas, a member of the JDA council, who interpreted sermons and key Hebrew passages into sign language. JDA executive director Sue Cipin said: "Most deaf people feel entirely understand or hear the service. "With this in mind, Douglas Silas and I are planning a 'signing in synagogue ' training course for Jewish and non-Jewish sign language interpreters."

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