Signed And Sealed

A nun served as sign language interpreter at a bar mitzvah
at Temple Emanu-El last weekend.

JULIE EDGAR STAFF WRITER

F

ather Ken McKenna was
an eager student.
Out of a book he bor-
rowed from Sandy Silver-
man, he studied sign language
symbols for words like "Torah"
and "mitzvah" to prepare him-
self for Alan Silverman's bar
mitzvah at Temple Emanu-El.
Fr. McKenna's job was to in-
terpret the service to Alan's
non-Jewish grandparents and
other deaf friends of the fami-
ly.
Unfortunately, he was called
away to perform a deaf funer-
al at the last moment. But a col-
league, Sister Diane Chrenko,
came in his stead last Saturday
for what turned out to be an
"absolutely wonderful" event,
said Alan's father, Steven. He
said his in-laws and friends
were able to "get something out
of it" because of the sign lan-
guage interpreter.
"The deaf people came up to
me and said it was just beauti-
ful," added Alan's mother,

Sandy Silverman, who con-
verted to Judaism 23 years ago
and has been signing at Tem-
ple Emanu-El during the past
year. "They really enjoyed the
service. [Sister Chrenko] did a
great job interpreting."
In sign language, the word
for "mitzvah" would be akin to
"Jewish law" or "Jewish com-
mandment," and would begin
with an "M."
"Picking up additional signs
is easy," Ms. Silverman said.
"There are sign language ac-
cents, like in Texas. In
Pennsylvania, you do the sign
for soda rather than pop. It can
be regionalized."
Sister Chrenko, who didn't
have the chance to look at Ms.
Silverman's book on Jewish
sign language, used the symbol
for Old Testament for the word
"Torah" and found herself ex-
plaining aspects of Judaism
while the rabbi read in Hebrew.
She found the experience fas-
cinating. It wasn't the first Jew-

Sister Diane Chrenko signs
Alan Silverman's bar
mitzvah.

ish ceremony where she
was called upon to act
as an interpreter for the
deaf, but it was her first
bar mitzvah.
"It was very interest-
ing, being able to ob-
serve a whole new
aspect of religion," she
said. "What was won-
derful is that at the end
of the service, one of the
laymen took the deaf on
a tour of the synagogue..
He spent a good half-
hour to 45 minutes ex-
plaining things to them.
A lot of times when peo-
ple are confronted with
the deaf, they don't
know what to do and
avoid them," Sister
Chrenko said.

THE CUTTING EDGE JUST
GOT SHARPER
INTRODUCING THE 3.00L.

6PITZEQ'6

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