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the morning to prepare books 
for binding, process them and 
mail them out across the entire 
United States — much of the 
work continues throughout the 
week. 
Remer typically comes in on 
Mondays to print books and 
make sure everything is ready 
for the Tuesday group, while 
Mazzara spends countless hours 
at home transcribing children’s 
books into braille and updating 
existing book data files.

ELIMINATING BARRIERS 
“Leviticus teaches us that we 
should never place a stumbling 
block before the blind,
” Remer 
explains. “It could be said that 
the deprivation of literacy is 
a stumbling block, so it’s the 
Bindery’s purpose and vision 
to supply free braille books to 
blind or low-vision children.
”
 Remer calls the tireless work 
being done at the Temple 

Beth El Bindery a “mitzvah,
” 
an essential duty that he 
says removes a “significant 
stumbling block” for sightless 
children.
Mazzara, who has been 
brailling, or writing and 
printing for blind or low-vision 
people, since 1970, can’t stress 
how important it is for sightless 
individuals to be able to read.
“If they can’t read braille, 
they’re illiterate,
” she explains. 
Oftentimes, braille reading will 
typically start in childhood, 
but adults who lose their sight 
due to medical reasons or 
injury also develop a need to 
learn braille — and turn to the 
Bindery for help.
Recently, Mazzara received a 
call from a blind woman who 
teaches other sightless adults to 
read braille. She was teaching a 
woman who lost her sight from 
health problems and wanted to 
know what books the Bindery 

could recommend.
Several books were ordered, 
and the woman steadily learned 
how to read braille. Now, she’s 
even put in a special request for 
Mazzara to braille the classic 
book Little Women. 
“You just never know where 
requests might come from,
” 
Mazzara says.
Overall, operating Temple 
Beth El bindery costs anywhere 
from $8,000 to $10,000 per 
year. It’s sustained by donor 
funds and supported by the 

Temple Beth El Sisterhood.
These funds help purchase 
and maintain crucial tech-
nology that speeds up the 
process and efficiency of braille 
binding. Now, thanks to high-
speed Perkins printers known 
as embossers, the Bindery can 
print at the rate of three braille 
pages per minute.
Books printed by the Bindery 
run about 70 to 75 pages and 
translate to roughly two print 
pages to one braille page. 
A 300-page print book, for 

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Bruce Plisner of Farmington Hills binds 
books that have recently been converted to braille. Beth Michelson 
of West Bloomfield types copy into her computer screen that the 
braille-creating embosser will print out. Earl Remer of West Bloomfield 
separates pages so they can be bound. 

