JADE - Jewish Advocates for Deaf Education

JADE’s mission is to support Jewish individuals who are deaf and/or hard-of-hearing and to encourage access to educational and engaging Jewish events.

JADE strives to raise the level of awareness in the community about the needs of Jewish people who are deaf or hard of hearing

Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month

As a member of the Jewish Special Education International Consortium, CJE helped create Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month – JDAIM, originated to use the month of February to bring focus to the issue of raising awareness of members of the Jewish community with disabilities. Over the years it has developed into a year-long initiative to promote inclusion throughout Jewish life. Disability awareness trainings, educational resources, programming such as Introduction to American Sign Language, JDAIM Tot Shabbat at JTown, JDAIM Movie Night, and more are created as a way to keep this important concept in the forefront of our collective consciousness, with February as the kickoff month to this ongoing effort. Rachel Turniansky, rturniansky@cjeb.org

JADE ASL Meet Up

Once a month, JADE provides an opportunity for people who sign to get together and shmooze. Each meet up is led by a member of the local Jewish Deaf and hard of hearing community and centers around a Jewish theme. ASL Meet Ups are always fun!

Click here for the ASL Meet Up schedule 2019-2020

How to Communicate with People who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

Workshops available on-site for any Jewish agency, school or synagogue. Communication is the key to building relationships and let’s face it; good business is all about relationships. Learn how to include people who communicate differently and much more. Yael Zelinger, yzelinger@cjebaltimore.org.

Deafblind Shabbaton

The mission of the Deafblind Shabbaton is to provide a fully accessible Shabbat experience for Jews of all backgrounds living with dual hearing and vision loss. The experience is meant to educate and empower the participants to socialize and connect meaningfully with Judaism and with fellow Jewish participants and staff.

To date, five Shabbaton experiences have taken place, all at the Pearlstone Retreat Center in Maryland. The opportunity to meet and learn from other Deafblind Jews has made meaningful impressions on all participants. Every aspect of the Shabbaton is Deafblind-friendly. All traditional blessings for Kiddush, Challah and Havdalah are simultaneously recited in Hebrew, ASL and tactile American Sign Language through trained interpreters. Plus, we have a full staff of volunteer SSPs (Support Service Providers) all weekend.

Jewish Advocates for Deaf Education

JADE’s mission is to support Jewish individuals who are deaf and/or hard-of-hearing and to encourage access to Jewish educational and engagement events. JADE strives to raise the level of awareness in the community about the needs of Jewish people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Yael Zelinger, yzelinger@cjebaltimore.org.

Jewish Captioning Initiative

The Jewish Captioning Initiative promotes captioning on videos with Jewish content to allow access for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Benefits of Captioning:

  • People who are Deaf or hard of hearing can become video users.
  • Users can more easily search for your video.
  • Once it is captioned in one language, it is easy to caption in other languages.
  • Users who speak English as a second language prefer having captions on videos.
  • Users watching more than one video at a time will benefit from captions.
  • Users can watch videos with the sound off in places where it may be disturbing to play it with sound.

JADE advocates for the inclusion of individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing by encouraging anyone running a Jewish community event to offer an interpreter by adding this line to promotional materials:

“A sign language or oral interpreter is available upon request one week prior to the event”.

For more information on any of the JADE programs and services, contact Yael Zelinger, yzelinger@cjeb.org or 410-735-5023.

Interpreters

JADE maintains a list of local Jewish interpreters who are willing to work in the Baltimore Jewish community under the JADE policy.

For the JADE list of interpreters and information about the JADE Access grant that helps pay for interpreters, click here.