I am very excited to inform you that JDCC has received a generous contribution from the Milken Foundation for JDCC to plan a lecture series this year. If there is a specific topic you would like to learn more about, please let us know and we will make plans for a lecture.
Hope you all have made your reservations to come and listen to Evelyn Zola on May 19th and have brunch!
Well, it is time to make plans for the High Holidays! For Rosh Hashana, there will be services on Saturday morning, September 14th. More details will be announced in the next issue.
Rabbi Fred Friedman, an deaf Orthodox Rabbi from Baltimore, MD will conduct Yom Kippur services on Monday morning, September 23rd. He will also be here for Kaparot on Saturday night. See page 10 for more information.
There has been recent incidents that indicate lack of respect for Jewish holidays. We learned that the Senior Citizen's Conference has been scheduled to take place during Passover in 1997. I contacted them to ask if the date could be changed. Their response: they couldn't. It is sad that the deaf organizations do not take the time to consider Jewish holiday dates in their calendars and respect Jewish deaf leaders.
Secondly, Naomi Brunn of New York has informed me that the Conference on Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research will be held on September 19-22. The 22nd marks the beginning of Yom Kippur. Again this shows it is a serious problem for the deaf community making it difficult for Jewish people to participate.
Because of these two problems, JDCC plans to print a 5-year calendar listing Jewish holiday dates, and send the calendar to all deaf organizations to prevent their leaders from planning conferences during these Jewish holidays,
The third incident is the first annual Deaf Messianic Jews Conference being held at Gallaudet University's campus on June 26-29th. This is a group of deaf Jews who believe in Jesus. I have contacted Rabbi Ben Tzion Kravitz of Jews for Judaism, an intervention crisis center here in Los Angeles and he is working with his office in Baltimore, MD on appropriate measures or actions.