NCJD 21st BIENNIAL CONVENTION
Close to 400 people attended the recent NCJD Convention in Chicago,
IL. The National Congress of Jewish's bylaws and elections have been suspended
while restructuring Jewish Deaf Congress's bylaws. The officers of JDC are:
Barbara Boyd (President), Martin Florsheim (Vice President of Finance),
Alan Hurwitz (Vice President of Administration), and Steve Brenner (Treasurer).
The Executive Secretary position is vacant. Award winners: Plapinger Essay
Award went to Shoshannah Stern of Fremont, CA., the Anna & Henry Plapinger
Award went to Steve Brenner of Potomac, MD. The next convention will be
held at Universal City, CA hosted by Temple Beth Solomon of the Deaf. There
were no bids for the 2000 convention, so there may be a conventor plan.
MARCH OF THE LIVING
Martin Stone, 20 years old, appeared in an article in Jewish Exponent,
a weekly publication in Philadelphia, PA, Martin, an oralist is the first
deaf person to participate in the March of the Living in eight years. The
March of the Living includes a one week trip to Poland where they visit
Warsaw, Lublin, Cracow, see ghettos, work and concentration camps, synagogues
and cemeteries. They will also spend a week in Israel where they visit the
British camp near Haifa for illegal immigrants of World War II. They visit
Tiberias, Safed, Jerusalem and ride the path the Israeli Army forged into
the Golan. A volunteer from his high school has offered to interpret.
NEW DIRECTORY OF SERVICES FOR DEAF JEWS
Erez Miller, a doctoral candidate at Boston College, and Arlene Fruchter has printed the 'Second Directory of Educational and Religious Services to Deaf Jews.' They surveyed about 250 organizations across the U.S. to collect information about types and the extent of religious and educational services available to Deaf and Hard of Hearing children and adults. After numerous revisions and corrections, they recently completed the directory. Included are the listings of 87 organizations across 17 states (plus Washington DC) that provide such services to Deaf Jews. They have also included a comprehensive bibliography of articles, books and other materials about Deaf Jews. They are interested in getting this information out to as many organizations and individuals as possible so that Deaf people can find which services are accessible to them in their (or nearby) community. You can purchase this directory for $8.60. Make check payable to Arlene Fruchter, and mail to her at 86 Griggs Rd., Brookline, MA 02146.
KESHER CAMP
An article on the Kesher Camp appeared in the Jewish Week of Queens, N.Y. on August 2nd by Jon Kalish. Eight families participated in the camp. Kesher is a Hebrew word which means, 'Communication'. Unfortunately, there were no deaf leaders involved in this process, it was directed by a hearing person, Marcia Tilchin, a rabbinical student at Jewish Theological Seminary and she was involved with the National Theatre of the Deaf in 1988 to 1990 which sparked her interest in working with the Jewish deaf.
SILENT NEWS UNDERGOES CHANGES
Harriet & Julius Wiggins, founders of Silent News have relocated their twenty-five years old publication to New Jersey. They recently terminated four of their five staff member, at their previous location in Rochester, N.Y.
JDCC'S SPORT STAFF HAS NEW PUBLICATION
Barry Strassler has started two on-line publications, Deaf Sportzine, a weekly deaf sports magazine and Deaf Digest , the deaf of everyday life. Both are e-mailed free of charge every weekend to subscribers that are interested. To subscribe, send e-mail to Barry@clark.net