April 15, 1999

JEWISH "ROSA PARKS" HELPS BREAK
THE SOUND BARRIER

A Mother's Day Story of Dedication Against the Odds

Chicago, Illinois: Call her the Rosa Parks of the Jewish deaf world. A skilled bookkeeper and soft-spoken mother of four, Buffalo Grove resident Libby Chernoff is the most unlikely of revolutionaries. Yet these days its getting hard to deny Chernoff's role as a reformer: the dynamo middle-aged woman's latest crusade is to educate the organized Jewish community of Chicago. Why the furious activism from a demure, suburban woman? Because Chernoff is the mother of Daniel, a 15 year old who is profoundly deaf and deprived of a Jewish education.

"Whatever my child has learned about his religion has been because of my own initiative," said Chernoff.  Indeed, Chernoff -- whose son attends Twin Groves Junior High because the local Jewish Day Schools cannot afford to pay a full-time interpreter -- is determined to create religious opportunities for Daniel. To achieve her goal, Chernoff hires a religious studies tutor and sends Daniel to a Sunday school and to a religious summer camp for the deaf. Now, Chernoff is embarking on her boldest endeavor yet: bringing the Our Way National Convention to the Midwest.  

In the forefront of outreach to the Jewish deaf, Our Way, which has held its national convention in the East Coast for decades, will hold its annual convention in Chicago from Thursday-Sunday, June 3-6.

Our Way is sponsored by the National Jewish Council for the Disabled (NJCD), an agency of the Orthodox Union (OU). During the four-day convention, members of the Chicago Jewish community will open their homes to more than 100 Jewish deaf and hard of hearing youth and adults ranging from ages 6-60 from around the country. The convention will feature a tour of the cultural sites in Chicago, lectures by deaf personalities and rabbis and a Saturday night deaf comedy program. The program will also include prayer services and Torah readings led by deaf rabbis. The services and presentations will be conducted in spoken English and American Sign Language. 

Chernoff, whose son has attended Our Way conventions since the age of 4, claims that Our Way is a "religious lifesaver" for Daniel.    By bringing the convention to the heart of the Chicago Jewish community, Chernoff, who serves as the Chicago Regional Director of Our Way, hopes to raise deaf-consciousness in the Chicago Jewish community. 

"Most people just don't understand deafness," says Chernoff.  "The ignorance is exacerbated because the Jewish hearing community generally has little or no relationship with the Jewish deaf community. I hope the convention will be a real eye-opener and help make the community more emotionally and financially supportive of services for the deaf and the hard of hearing," she added.

Chernoff's husband, Arnie who's a dentist, is very supportive of his wife's activism. "I could never accomplish anything without my husband's unfailing encouragement," says Chernoff.  

Chernoff's right-hand man is Mordechai Siegal,   the deaf Chairman of the Our Way National Convention Board. Siegel agrees that spiritual isolation is the number one problem facing the Jewish deaf. "You can have a next door neighbor who is deaf but who spiritually lives miles and miles away from you."

Out to make Chicago more "deaf friendly," Chernoff hopes that eventually interpreters and other accommodations for the deaf and hard of hearing will become the norm in synagogues, day schools and other public Jewish institutions. "Every summer when Daniel comes back from Jewish camp, he's eager to attend a Jewish day school. But I have to tell him, `Sorry Daniel,you can't go this year'," says Chernoff. "Maybe next year things will be different."

A creative, spirited, teenager, Daniel has been able to make his own "accommodations." Frustrated by his inability to follow the rabbi's weekly Sabbath sermon, Daniel asked the rabbi if he could receive a copy of the sermon in advance. Now, every Sabbath, Daniel doesn't have to strain himself to lip-read; he just follows the typed speech.  

In her battle for greater sensitivity, Chernoff maintains a wry sense of humor.  "One Jewish organization created a promotional video focusing on how it reaches out to all segments of the Jewish world. I couldn't resist pointing out that the video was not captioned," she recounted. 

"Beyond the ongoing social programs we provide, Our Way advocates on the national and local levels for the rights and needs of the deaf and hearing impaired," said Rabbi Eliezer Lederfiend, National Director of Our Way. "In the area of educational advocacy, we are particularly active.  One of our most recent projects was the publication of a handbook on dealing with the hearing-impaired child in the Jewish classroom," he added. 

With over 35 chapters throughout the United States and Canada, the National Jewish Council for the Disabled is the only national resource center providing state-of-the-art programs, information, guidance and referral services for those with special needs in the Jewish community. Our Way, a division of the NJCD serves as a religious lifeline for the deaf and hard of hearing through their range of social, recreational and religious activities. Our Way is the only national organization dedicated to providing social and religious opportunities for the Jewish deaf. 

For more information on the convention or Our Way,   please call (212) 613-8234.  

The Orthodox Union, celebrating 100 years of service to the Jewish community of America and beyond, is a leader in youth work, advocacy for the disabled, synagogue services, adult education and political action. Its kosher supervision label, the  , is the world's most recognized kosher symbol and can be found on over 200,000 products in 59 countries around the globe.

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