This Week

Insight

Eye On The World

Jewish Braille Institute enriches learning for the visually impaired.

tute is mounting major outreach pro-
grams across the country.
Special to the Jewish News
The institute "has opened up a
whole new world for me," says Evelyn
hen Barry Wiener turned
Liefer, 80, who gradually lost her sight
13, he wanted to have a
from macular degeneration.
bar mitzvah. Blind since
"Unlike other libraries, where there
birth, however, Wiener
are
only limited copies available, if you
couldn't read the Torah.
request a title they'll record it for you
Fortunately for Wiener, the Jewish
within a week so you don't need to
Braille Institute of America provided
wait," Wiener says.
him with all the necessary materials in
Wiener's favorite authors include
Braille — including a Braille Torah —
Israeli
novelists Amos Oz and A.B.
so he could study for his ceremony.
Yehoshua
and the American Rabbi
"This organization is wonderful,
Harold
Kushner,
who wrote When Bad
one-of-a-kind," says Wiener, now 50
Things Happen to Good People.
and a clinical psychologist living in
Clarita Gollender, a
Brooklyn.
retiree originally from
Wiener is not alone
Argentina, also prais-
in his appreciation.
es the library, which,
Some 300,000
she
says, does not
American Jews, and
"cause
any problems
others around the world
about
overdue
who are visually
books."
impaired, have trouble
Gollender went
reading standard print
blind
gradually after
or are blind, benefit
contracting
measles at
from the free services of
age
6.
She
graduated
the Jewish Braille
from the Maryland
Institute, which likes to
School for the Blind
think of itself as the
and received a bache-
"best-kept secret in the
lor's degree from
Jewish world."
Maryland's Goucher
Since 1931, the
College, using Braille
Manhattan-based insti-
and
recordings.
tute has provided visu-
make
this
Hebrew
text
readable
for
some-
Larger
print
and
special
lenses
A
few years ago,
ally impaired Jews with
one
with
visual
impairment.
however,
she faced a
books, magazines and
crisis. Gollender had
special publications in
been the only blind member of a book
1992 extended its services to the
Braille and in large print as well as
club — participating with the aid of a
Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
audiocassettes, to help them partici-
friend who read to her over the tele-
The books serve a growing popula-
pate in Jewish educational, cultural,
phone — until her friend dropped our
tion,
says
Israel
Taub,
the
institute's
religious and communal life.
of the club.
associate
director.
The institute was founded by
Luckily for Gollender, the institute
As
the
American
life
span
increases,
Leonard Dubov, the son of a blind
helped
her to rediscover her love for
older
Americans
suffer
from
age-relat-
with
the
help
of
Rabbi
Michael
rabbi,
books.
ed diseases that affect vision including
Aaronsohn, who was blinded during
Books can be ordered from the
macular degeneration, diabetes,
World War II.
Jewish Braille Institute by calling 1-
It also counsels parents of blind chil- cataracts and glaucoma.
These diseases can have harmful psy- 800-433-1531 or through the Web at
dren and children of blind parents.
jbilibrary.org
chological
effects, as people accus-
The institute is celebrating its 70th
Outreach to the Russian community
tomed
to
reading
find
they
no
longer
anniversary this year with a number of
includes
4,000 audio titles, library
can,
Taub
says.
receptions and events in conjunction
The institute's extensive services help materials printed in Russian and a
with the New York Public Library.
Russian language voicemail to leave
with both the physical and psychologi-
The institute was formed at a time
messages to have a Russian speaker
cal effects of blindness. As part of the
when Judaic materials in Braille were
return the calls. ❑
70th
anniversary
celebration,
the
insti-
generally unavailable. The institute

SWAN RABINOWITZ

riT

7/13

2001

26

provides religious materials such as
Haggadot and Bibles in large print as
well as Reform, Conservative and
Orthodox prayer books on tape.
Other Jewish resources include
8,000 titles in the institute's Talking
Book Library and magazines ranging
from the in-house/Bi- Voice to more
political publications such as
Commentary and Tikkun. It also spon-
sors lectures, concerts, and dramatic
readings in English, Russian, Yiddish,
Hungarian and Romanian.
Since its founding, the institute has
passed several milestones. In 1950, it
published its first Braille Torah, and in

Remember
When •

From the pages of the Jewish News
for this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.

1991
Vandals spray-painted anti-Semitic
slogans across the new playground
surface at Victoria Park in Oak Park
over 1-696.
Julie M. Lynn of Farmington Hills
received a master of social work
degree from Yeshiva University in
New York.

1981
A delegation of four Israeli school-
children attended an international
youth camp in Poland.
Sandra Zoldan of Southfield was
awarded the Philip Slomovirz
Scholarship Award of the Zionist
Organization of Detroit to partici-
pate in the Masada Leadership
Program in Israel.
Rabbi E.B. Freedman of Oak
Park was appointed administrative
director of Yeshiva Beth Yehudah.

1971
Detroiter Sol I. Stein was named an
international associate member of the
Institute of CPAs in Israel.
A recently concluded Zionist cen-
sus in Israel shows 800,000 registered
Zionists throughout the world.

1961
Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion
advised President John _F. Kennedy
to try methods developed by an
Israeli physician as cures for the
president's chronic backache.
Rabbi Nathaniel Steinberg
became the new spiritual leader of
the Livonia Jewish Congregation.

1951
Many local families and businesses
placed ads saluting Detroit on its
250th birthday.
Detroiter Ruth Kanter was elect-
ed to lead the Pioneer Women of
Detroit.
The Schwartz Hotel in Elkhart
Lake, Wis., offered a five-day spe-
cial, including three meals a day
and entertainment, for $48.

— Compiled by Sy Manello,
editorial assistant