Sign of Faith

According to ancient Jewish teachings, a deaf Jew could not marry, sue or be sued, own or buy real estate. The harsh laws were enacted because rabbis could not communicate with the heresh, as they were known.

As a result, they were effectively barred from undertaking the traditional coming-of-age ceremony--the bar mitzvah for males and the bat mitzvah for females.

Such formal rules no longer exist, but many of the estimated 30,000 to 50,000 deaf Jews in the United States say they still feel isolated from their religious heritage by their lack of hearing and the impossibility of going through the bar/bat mitzvah, considered central to Jewish religious identity.

During the ceremony, young people read aloud from the Torah--an insurmountable hurdle for deaf Jews, many of whom had no way to learn Hebrew, let alone speak.

But Temple Beth Solomon in Arleta, founded by and for the deaf in 1960, has developed a system for deaf Jews to study Hebrew. In some cases, they can read or phonetically sign passages from the Torah.

The only temple of its kind in the nation, Beth Solomon recently received a $7,500 grant from the Jewish Federation in Los Angeles to assemble a manual on how to put together bar/bat mitzvah ceremonies for deaf children and their families.

“There are no resources available to help guide families through this,” said Marsha Rothpan of the Jewish Federation. “This is your opportunity to show your stuff, but how do deaf children learn to read from the Torah? In many cases, learning to read Hebrew is a requirement.”

With the manual, Temple Beth Solomon wants to share its knowledge with Jews in Southern California and beyond. There are about 5,000 deaf Jewish children in the United States.

In the temple’s Hebrew class, learning can be tedious and involves slow mastery of three languages: spoken Hebrew, phonetic signing of Hebrew and signed meaning. Using flashcards, teacher Peter Robinson drills the students on the Hebrew alphabet and eventually moves to actual prayers.

The Beth Solomon classes are also open to Jewish adults who were effectively barred from undertaking Jewish education as children and so could not have a bar mitzvah.

To Cheryl Burns, 33, and Florence Haberman, 43, students in the adult Hebrew class Sunday, having the chance to learn Hebrew is like adding another dimension to a Jewish world they had been shut out of.

“All of us grew up in hearing temples, and didn’t know what was going on, ever,” said Burns in a flutter of hand motions.

Burns grew up in a conservative Jewish home and has three brothers who were given bar mitzvahs. She said she sat through temple and prayers every week, mouthing the Hebrew words by rote.

Burns, who lost her hearing at 8 months old because of meningitis, said her family never learned sign language, and forced her to attend hearing school. She said she never had the option of having a bat mitzvah.

“I didn’t even know about it,” she said, shrugging. “I was just totally left out. My parents just talked all day. They didn’t tell me this stuff.”

Haberman, too, was born hearing. She said she was shaken a lot as a child, and in one fall her nerves were damaged severely and she became deaf.

“Tough,” she signed, with a smile.

She said she used to cry at temple out of frustration.

“With hearing people in the temple, I didn’t understand,” she said. “And I was so hungry to learn and understand.”

Not all the approximately 100 people at Temple Beth Solomon are deaf, but most are. Some are only slightly hearing impaired, while others never learned English--speaking instead in American Sign Language--and now must learn Hebrew.

Still, others are families with a deaf relative. Some members can vocalize, others can only sign.

Temple interpreter Jan Seeley says the services at Beth Solomon are like any other Jewish service, only without music, sometimes eerily silent and other times unnervingly cacophonous.

The difference between the deaf Jews who grew up in the nurturing atmosphere of Beth Solomon compared with those who did not is striking.

Marlo Lovitch, a beautiful 14-year-old with flowing chestnut hair, had her bat mitzvah in June. A tutor helped her with Hebrew. At the ceremony she read aloud in Hebrew and simultaneously signed the English meaning of the passages from the Torah before a crowd of 150 people, an accomplishment that brought her parents to tears.

“Her Torah portion was so huge,” Seeley said. “Most hearing kids don’t do that.”

Seeley said that since it is impossible to spell Hebrew words in sign language, Marlo read from the Torah while signing the meanings.

“It is like patting your head and rubbing your stomach for an hour,” Seeley said. “And she did it with such grace and maturity. Everyone was spellbound.”

Temple president Roz Robinson, who also heads the religious school, said the point of Temple Beth Solomon is for deaf people to run the show.

“We own it, we run it,” said Robinson, who can read lips and vocalize. She gradually began losing her hearing in sixth grade. “This is about deaf people deciding what deaf people want. The idea that we have our own synagogue, controlled by us, is really amazing.”