16 Friday, January 7, 1977

/ Local,

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS,

National Agencies Serve V isually Impaired

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government. Hundreds of
the most popular Jewish
books are available in
these specially recorded
.les which are read onto
e records by experts, all
volunteers.
_
._ The services rendered
at the Farmington Public
Library are especially
commendable. The library
covers every reading
interest in a collection of
more than 8,000 titles on
records and cassettes.
If a title has not been
'produced by the Library
of Congress, volunteers
will record the book free-
of-charge. As part of the
Library of Congress net-
work, eligible patrons re-
ceive a record or cassette
player and any acces-
,y)ries, such as earphones
,or remote controls, they
ay need.
_ 'This year, 700 persons
'read more than 22,000
talking books in Oakland
County, and the Library
of Congress projects that
the potential number of
eligible persons for this
service in Oakland
County may be as high as
25,000.
For an appreciation of
the assistance given by

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the federally-financed
program at the Far-
mington Public Library it
is necessary to gain an
acquaintance with the
type of books distributed
gratis to the legally blind.
The books are mailed
regularly and after read-
ing them are returnable,
postage-free, in specially
packed containers.

The Farmington collec-
tion includes books by
Harry Golden, Eli Wiesel,
Chaim Potok, Moshe
Pearlman's "The Zealots
of Masada," Larry Collins'
"0 Jerusalem" and many
others of Jewish interests.

In charge of the Oak-
land County Library for
the blind and Handicap-
ped are Christina Topa-
lian, Gary Foreman and
Beverly Papai.

The Sinai Hospital low
vision clinic, under the di-
rection of Dr. Morris J.
Mintz, has been a major
source of help for persons
in the Detroit area with
impaired vision.
A patient at the clinic is
treated by a team of spe-
cialists that include an
ophthalmologist, an op-
tometrist, a visual aids
technician, a social
caseworker, an optician, a
teacher of the visually
handicapped and a voca-
tional rehabilitation
counselor.

The complete range of
problems associated with
impaired vision, from
medical to social, are dealt
with at the clinic. In many
cases, Dr. Mintz and his
associates help people
make better use of their
limited vision and imjrove
a situation which the pa-
tient may have resigned
himself to for years.

In some cases, where
medical treatment or
glasses can not help, vis-
ual aids such as special.
easels and high-intensity
lights have proven help-
ful.
The pioneers who insti-
tuted the Braille pro-
grams at Cong. Shaarey
Zedek, Temple Beth El
and other area congrega-
tions included the late
Mrs. Samuel M. (Lillian)
Levin, the late Fayga
(Mrs. Bayre) Keidan and
many others.
The women represent-
ing the Conservative
synagogues operate as a
Braille committee, with
Adat Shalom Synagogue

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the greatest mitzvot.
The Jewish Braille In-
stitute of America was
formed in 1931 by Leopold
Dubov, a blind Polish
scholar, with the help of
Rabbi Michael Aaron-
sohn of Cincinnati who
was blinded during World
War I, and the National
Federation of Temple Sis-
terhoods.
Soon after NFTS was
joined by the Women's
League of the United
Synagogue, the Women's
Branch of the Union of
Orthodox Jewish Congre-
gations and Ivriah as
sponsoring groups and
volunteers providing
braille, recording and
large-type books for the
Jewish blind and
partially-sighted.
The institute's publica-
tions and services are of-
fered free of charge.
Today, the JBI library is
the largest private braille
library in the world not
supported by municipal,
state of federal funds. It
contains more than 50,000
braille volumes: 41,00 in
English and 9,000 in He-
brew braille, 1,700 English
and 92 Hebrew Talking
Books, in addition to its
200 Yiddish recordings
and 178 large-type titles.
A massive undertaking
of the JBI was the braille
transcription of the He-
brew Bible.
It was necessarily pre-
ceded by the adoption of
an international Hebrew
Braille System. Such a

system was devised
under the institutes lead-'
ership in the early 1930s,
by a blind rabbi, Harry
Brevis, now living in Los
Angeles, aided by an in-
ternationally represen-
tative committee.
Designated as the In-
ternational Hebrew
Braille Code, the new let-
tering was essentially a
phonetic adaption of the
English braille alphabet.
Thus, B is used for Bet; G
for Gimmel; E for Segol; U
for Kubbutz. Where no
equivalent character is
available, some other
symbol is used.
Because vowel points
used in printed Hebrew
cannot be reproduced in
braille, it was necessary to
adapt special signs for the
vowels, semi-vowels and
all other peculiarly Heb-
raic symbols required.
In the code, vowels im-
mediately follow the con-
sonants they affect.
Unlike printed Hebrew,
Hebrew Braille is read
from left to right. This
book was made to con-
form to the general prac-
tice of all Western lan-
guages in order to avoid a
new obstacle for the
touch reader.
,Reading from right to
left also would have im-
posed tremendous tech-
nical and production dif-
ficulties. Wherever possi-
ble, consonants and vow-
els of the English al-
phabet were made to
serve for their Hebrew

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serving as headquarters.
The Shaarey Zedek
women's committee is
headed by Joan Provisor.
The braille bindery of
the sisterhood of Temple
Beth El was started in
1961 by the late Mrs.
Samuel (Pearl) Hartman,
Mrs. Alice Harris, Mrs.
Maurice (Belle) Morse and
Mrs. Arthur (Josephine)
Bloom.
One of seven binderies
in the country, it is bind-
ing today 2,000 hard cover
books in Braille for the
blind in four languages,
on a variety of subjects,
and sending these books
to all parts of the United
States, Israel, England,
India and Africa.
The bindery binds
textbooks in English on
all subjects for the blind
in the public schools of
Wayne, Oakland and
Macomb counties. It also
binds books in Hebrew
The many who have witnessed the blind professor of
and English for the mathematics conduct an entire traditional religious
Jewish Braille Institute service with a Braille Siddur or to officiate at a Passover
of America, including Seder which he conducts in its entirety by using a Braille
prayer books, Bible, Hagada can best appreciate the courage and the stoicism
Passover Hagada, Tal- of Dr. Abraham Nemeth. Abraham Nemeth was born and
mud and books on Jewish raised in New York City. He was educated in the regular
history, literature and public school system, and earned his BA degree at
philosophy.
Brooklyn College in 1940 and his MA from Columbia in
In addition, the bindery 1942, where he also began his studies toward his docto-
binds books for private rate. In 1955 he joined the mathematics department of
blind individuals.
the University of Detroit and completed his doctorate at
The bindery services all Wayne State University in 1964. He is currently a full
denominations, with the professor at the University of Detroit. In 1973 he was
largest numbers of books named alumnus of the year at Wayne State.
ordered by the Little
By DR. ABRAHAM
Flower MiSsion, a
much use unless Braille
NEMETH
Catholic institution in
reading material based
Kansas City.
As a blind person who on the system can be put
The bindery workers has been using Braille into the hands of Braille
include Mrs. Dee Disner, since_ childhood, I have readers.
Mrs. Mabel Gottesman, been dependent on the ef-
This requires a whole
Mrs. Aimee Fox, Mrs. forts of volunteers for the corps of organized volun-
Mary Gordon, Tessy major portiOn of my read- teers not only for trans-
Joseph, Mrs. Teresa Har-^ ing needs. The phenome- cribing the material into
ris, Mrs. Sylvia Hausman, non of volunteerism as it Braille, but for duplicat-
Mrs. Helen Lenhoff, Mrs. is manifested in our coun- ing it for simultaneous
Shirley Levin, Mrs. Cele try is so much a part of use, for distributing it on
Levy, Mrs. Rosalind our way of life that we time, for cataloguing and
Neuman, Mrs. Clara take it for granted.
housing it, for maintaining
Phelps and Mrs. Dolly
current information as to
However, in March,
Radom.
1976, I attended a confer- the availability and loca-
Another project spon- ence in Moscow at the in- tion of Braille reading ma-
sored by the Beth El sis- vitation of the Russian
terial, and for all of the
terhood is Braille trans- government. The confer-
other ancillary services
cribing, under the chair- ence was concerned with
needed to keep the system
manship of Mrs. Phyllis an attempt to formulate
operating smoothly.
Remer. This involves typ- and standardize an in-
I then proceeded to de-
ing manuscripts in Braille ternational system for
scribe to the delegates of
on various subjects in En- the writing of mathemat-
the 17 countries repre-
glish, French and Spanish. ical and scientific nota-
sented at the conference
Mrs. Remer organizes tion in Braille.
how this volunteer work.
classes to teach the volun-
All of the papers read at
organized and carried
teers Braille transcribing. the conference but mine
out in our country. I dis-
Guiding the activities were concerned with the
covered that the concept
of committees for Braille relative merits and
of volunteerism was a
in synagogues through- shortcomings of one pro-
strange and novel one to
out the land is the Jewish posed system over
the delegates, even to
Braille Institute of another. The idea that I
those from the Western
America. Its director, Dr. attempt'ed to convey was
countries.
Jacob Fried, supervises that no matter how
I myself gained a de-
services that have been superior a system of nota-
eper appreciation and re-
described as being among tion may be, it is not of spect for the system when

equivalents in sound.
Five years of effort and
considerable cost were
required to complete the
transcription of the en-
tire Hebrew Bible into
braille. Aided by an advi-
sory council of distin-
guished American rabbis
and scholars, the insti-
tute turned out the work
in 20 encyclopedia-sized
volumes.
The work of transcrib-
ing the master copy from
which the metal plates for
this unique Bible were
embossed — there an--
more than 3,000 pages -
was done singly by the late
Mrs. Harry A. Cole of
Cleveland.
The volumes were
printed by the American
Printing House for the
Blind, financed by con-
tributions from individu-
als and groups.
In addition to its other
programs, the JBI was
heavily involved in the
first World Conference on
Jewish Blind which was
held in Israel in 1975.
It is sponsoring two
blind students who are
training to be cantors at
the School of Sacred
Music at the Hebrew
Union College-Jewish In-
stitute of Religion in New
York, and is planning a
1977 seminar devoted to
aliya of Jewish graduate
students who have taken
special coursework in
education of the blind for
work in agencies for the
blind in Israel.

Blind Prof. Lauds Volunteers

4):,MV
DR. ABRAHAM NEMETH

I had to explain the value
and importance of some-
thing I had always taken
very much for granted.

Without our volun-
teers, the Braille readers
of America would still be
in the position of depriva-
tion which prevails
among the Braille
readers of other coun-
tries.

With our volunteer s,
tem, we lead the world in
the quantity and quality of
the Braille reading matter
which blind people have at
their disposal, and which
makes us the envy of all
the other countries in the
world.
It is therefore impor-
tant to promote and sup-
port the volunteer activ-
ity on behalf of the
Braille-reading popula-
tion so that, as equally in-
formed citizens with their
sighted neighbors, they
may take and maintain
their proper place in our
society.

