Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 13 July 1979 — Page 14

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(Continued From Previous Page) in Hebrew, and says that it was a slow process to educate the deaf in Hebrew. “I now have a choir of deaf people, led by a woman, Lois Gordon, who has been with me for the entire six years. She's hard of hearing, but not totally deaf. She can pick up my sounds a little easier than a deaf person. Her knowledge of sign is invaluable: she signs while I sing. Usually it is just she and I in a Sabbath service. She stands next to me. It’s not word-to-word relationship in sign language. I shape the phrase of a song and there is a rest in the music. I hold the note out to see where Lois is, and end the phrase at the same time. It is very important that we begin and end every phrase at the same point to keep the symmetry of the song. “WHEN WE DO Hebrew it's even more difficult. Lois cannot read my lips in Hebrew so it’s up to me to know the prayers in English and know where she is. This takes practice since most of the ser-

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vice is now in Hebrew. Some people have remarked to me when w’e are not synchronized: ‘What’s wrong with Lois?’ They think she’s handicapped and can’t handle it. But actually it’s my own lack of concentration. I have a lapse, and Lois gets the blame!"

“...Nobody had ever sung for her before - and I was singing for her!”

It has been only in the last two months that a very significant event has happened in the congregation: the deaf are now singing; they are moving their lips and making sounds as they sign! “They would sign with us,” Ronald says, “but they were inhibited about singing until now. They were used to keeping their mouths shut. After those years of acculturation, it’s difficult to get them to cast these inhibitions aside. Participation is the essence, the ruach. of religion and Shabbat. Some of these people are in their fifties and sixties. They had never participated so much before. It’s like having been locked up in a cave all those years, and now seeing sunlight. They had been deprived spiritually and theologically of their Jewish heritage.’’ RONALD DEFINES why he considers the deaf’s participation in services to be of

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such significance. “Music is the inspiration of the Jewish people. It’s part of our tradition It assists in solidifying and immortalizing prayers. To take the music away from a Jewish community would be to strip them of an integral part of their lives. It’s like taking a wheelchair away from an invalid - however limited a means of transportation that may be. It is depriving them of part of their connection with the Jewish people. I’m trying to the best of my ability to help them to have the full benefits of Judaism. “And a shul is not only a place of worship. It’s a social center. You experience things in a synagogue you can’t experience anywhere else.” Congregation Bene Shalom purchased its own building four years ago. It now has a membership of 250. Some congregants travel from Tulsa, New Orleans, California and beyond to attend services at least once a year, and many deaf and hearing people from the greater Chicago area come every week. DESPITE HIS long experience with the congregation and having sung professionally since the age of 13, it was only two years ago that Ronald decided to become a Hazzan. “I think that I have developed a heart for Hazzanut through my experience with the deaf. It’s a tremendous test, a struggle, to draw emotions out of deaf people who can’t hear you. They go out of their way to shake my hand and say, ‘We can fee! your music. We can see and understand what you are doing.’ I feel they are responsible for me -- for whatever I am as a Hazzan. They gave it to me. “Deaf people are used to getting help - but to recognize they’ve helped someone else - me - is very important. They made me a cantor.” Reprinted front The Bulletin of The Jewish Theological Seminary.

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