Dear Readers,
JDCC Community Seder was an successful event with 235 participants breaking
history with the largest turnout ever.
Based on a survey that was given out at the end of the seder to take home
and mailed to us, 99% enjoyed themselves and want to have one Community
Seder next year so we hope to either continue solely or co- host it with
Temple Beth Solomon of the Deaf if they are interested. Many participants
were able to understand and follow the Haggadah through the multimedia video
concept. Some want to make the dinner earlier, while we understand this,
this is a Community Seder where we are gathering to observe Passover, we
start after the holiday begins which is the candlelighting time. We may
consider adding a social hour - an hour before we start the Seder-so
participants have a chance to chat with their friends for a bit before we
get involved in following the videotape... in one suggestion from last year,
we put a bowl of water with napkins for hand washing on each table which was
a nice transition from long lines to do it twice. This saved a lot of time
especially in a large crowd. A new suggestion in this year's survey was to
add a disposable camera on each table to take pictures!
Special thanks to the four SSP (support service provider) interpreters who
contributed their time in assisting the deaf-blind participants: Pinky
Aiello, Bernardette Blakely, Richard Fendrich, and Shari Hanaumi.
We will write a letter of request to get funding to do a brand new video for
next year's seder as we have used the current video for three years. Hearing
participants expressed concern about the voiceover quality as it was a bit
off with the timing in some parts. Oralists would like us to caption the
video where the speakers are signing as they may not be fluent in signing
and yet can't hear the audio so we will aim to get the tape captioned in the
new video.
Anyone interested in being on the 2004 - 10th Annual JDCC Community Seder
Committee or the filming project or ideas how to improve the videotape,
please contact us at JDCCNews@aol.com
Mark your calendar: Second Evening April 6th, 2004,Tuesday at Adat Ari El.
Have a great summer and hope to see you all at the Jewish Deaf Congress's
conference on July 7-12 in Las Vegas, NV.