A Different Kind Of Seeing
Mathematician, observant Jew and lover of life, Abe Nemeth marches on, guided only by gumption.
LYNNE MEREDITH COHN STAFF WRITER
be Nemeth has never been able to
see.
But the 78-year-old mathe-
matician has seen a lot in life —
from growing up on Manhat-
tan's Lower East Side to trav-
eling the globe in an effort to
expand opportunities for the
at Grand Central Station," then take a
bus from White Plains, N.Y., to Purchase,"
he recalls. And to top it off, the train to
White Plains left Grand Central from a
different track every day.
"The day before I was first scheduled
to make the trip, I went all alone. I knew
the subway systems very well. I spent all
day walking back and forth from train
station to bus and learned my way."
There was still no way to write math
in Braille, "so I developed my own private
system," he says.
One day, a blind physicist asked
Nemeth if he had a table of integrals.
Nemeth handed him the Braille version.
The physicist was "so impressed, he went
to the Braille Uniform Type community
father taught me all about my religion.
He told me it's better to light a candle
than curse the dark."
The day before Nemeth got married the
first time, he recited the Haftorah at his
aufruf "by heart."
Hebrew Braille came about around the
time Israel became a state, Nemeth says.
A blind rabbi, Harry J. Brevis (a native
Detroiter who lost his sight), promoted
the system.
First, the Hebrew Bible was put into
Braille; Nemeth and his father were "giv-
en the job of proofreading the Book of
Psalms" and the minor prophets, he re-
calls.
In 1955, Nemeth was hired to teach
mathematics at the University of Detroit.
blind.
He invented a Braille code for mathe-
matics, which bears his name. And on the
High Holidays, he reads a Haftorah —
from memory — at Adat Shalom Syna-
gogue in Farmington Hills.
"The hardest thing about not having
sight is the negative attitudes of other peo-
ple," Nemeth says. 'They assume, if you're
blind, you're not intelligent and you don't
hear too well. I have learned
alternate ways to do all the sT__
things I need to do. For me,
blindness is just a nuisance."
Today, Nemeth lives in
Southfield, with his second ,2
wife, Edna. She has three chil- 2
dren, eight grandchildren and
three great-granddaughters,
but he has no children of his
own. Nemeth met his first wife
in 1943. After she died, he met
Edna, and the pair married in
1971.
Abe Nemeth spent his child-
hood speaking Yiddish and
playing in the New York
streets with playmates like
Zero Mostel (the principal ac-
tor in Fiddler on the Roof). He
attended New York City pub-
lic schools and lived during the
week at the New York Jewish
Guild for the Blind, a residence
for non-seeing children and
adults.
"I always had a secret am-
bition to be a mathematician,"
Nemeth recalls. At Brooklyn
College, he signed up for all the
math courses he could take,
"but my advisers discouraged
me from majoring in math" be-
cause at the time there was no
Braille code for mathematics. Abe Nemeth's grandfather told him: "It's better to light a candle than curse the dark."
"I, being a compliant blind
person, listened to them," says Nemeth, cooperative effort between the U.S. and He taught at U of D for 30 years, first
who majored in psychology. He went on England. He asked me to write up a re- teaching math, then heading up a com-
to obtain a master's degree in psychology port. They liked what they read, approved puter science department that he inau-
gurated. In 1985, he retired.
from Columbia University, but continued my code."
Both Nemeth and Edna were involved
In 1952, the Nemeth Code became the
taking math classes at night at Brooklyn
standard Braille alphabet for writing in faculty life at U-D. Her first husband
College.
But Nemeth could not find a job as a math in the United States. It has been re- was a professor of metallurgy, and both
psychologist, so he enrolled in a math doc- vised three times, and is now used in couples were involved at Adat Shalom.
Their first spouses passed away around
Canada and New Zealand as well.
toral program at Columbia.
Before there was a Braille code for He- the same time, Nemeth recalls, and the
Nemeth first taught math at Brooklyn
and Manhattan colleges, and later at the brew, Nemeth was chanting the blessings clergy at Adat Shalom arranged the
match.
Purchase, N.Y. campus of Manhattan Col- in his Orthodox childhood home.
"Since I know Hebrew very well, I know
"I could not go to Hebrew school, yeshi-
lege.
"I had to take two subway lines, change va or Talmud Torah," he says. "My grand- almost all the prayers by heart," he says.
Currently, Nemeth is working for the
Jewish Braille Institute, putting into
Braille Rabbi Jules Harlow's version of
the Conservative prayerbook, Siddur Sim
Shalom.
"Braille is very bulky — my job is to put
into one volume, for one occasion," so blind
individuals don't have to lug multiple
books to shul on each occasion.
Nemeth has built up quite a reputa-
tion over time. President George Bush ap-
pointed Nemeth as one of his 1,000 points
of light, a program recognizing out-
standing individuals.
Governor John Engler appointed
Nemeth to the Michigan Conunission for
the Blind, and later made the Democrat
the commission's chairman. But after two
years, Nemeth resigned,
saying "politics is not my
cup of tea."
"I met with many state
legislators. They are still
trying to pass a bill re-
quiring teachers to teach
Braille to blind children —
26 states already passed
[it]. To teach, teachers
have to learn Braille,"
which is why they oppose
the measure, he says.
He is a member of the
research and development
committee of the National
Federation of the Blind,
and he has developed a
talking scientific calcula-
tor.
After the Nemeth Code
was developed, its creator
got a call from the State
Department, asking
whether he wanted to go
to the Soviet Union. Ap-
parently, the Russian gov-
ernment wanted to learn
about the code, and in
1972 they paid for Nemeth
and his wife to travel
there.
"Four years later, I got
another call from the So-
viet Union. They wanted:
to know how a blind per-
son can access the screen of a computer,"
he says. Trip No. 2 came in 1976.
He has traveled the world, had what
he describes as two successful marriages,
and he still finds a little humor in every
situation. Asked whether his non-sight
senses are extra perky due to his blind-
ness, Nemeth takes the opportunity to in-
struct.
"We have a large amount of redundant
capacity built into us," he replies. "My
senses are better educated, not more sen-
sitive." ❑