Jewish Heritage and Holidays in ASL ( JHAH) is a project of the Deborah Sisterhood of Etz Chaim Sephardic Synagogue of Indianapolis, Indiana.
In the late 1990's, our synagogue was searching for Jewish educational materials in ASL for our children's program and found that very little was available. We had 6-12 deaf and hard-of-hearing children who attended our programs and wanted to have a regular Shabbat class for them. Some children were from families that belonged to our synagogue and some were children whose parents did not, but who had started coming to our holiday and Shabbat programs. Three parents (two Hearing and one Deaf) worked together to make the first videos.
Our original plan was to develop enough materials to have the equivalent of a full “Sunday school” program. We worked from a list of topics that we developed from curriculums of other programs. The early videos were copied onto VHS tapes and mailed to other groups of Jewish Deaf that we knew about. We also began sending, free-of-charge, these videos to Jewish Deaf and parents and educators of Jewish Deaf children who found out about them and contacted us. In the pre-YouTube days, everything was very expensive and we had literally no funding. Donations from a few families, and from the sisterhood of the synagogue helped us to keep going.
To our surprise, the vast majority of requests for videos has come from Deaf adults who missed out on a Jewish education while they were growing up, because nothing was made accessible to them. This has caused us to expand the range of topics of our videos to meet their needs. While we are still working to make videos to cover all of the basic topics, we have also made videos on Kabbalah, death, and adult relationships.
In the last few years, we have gradually stopped making hard copies (VHS and later DVD) and have posted our videos on-line.
In the late 1990's, our synagogue was searching for Jewish educational materials in ASL for our children's program and found that very little was available. We had 6-12 deaf and hard-of-hearing children who attended our programs and wanted to have a regular Shabbat class for them. Some children were from families that belonged to our synagogue and some were children whose parents did not, but who had started coming to our holiday and Shabbat programs. Three parents (two Hearing and one Deaf) worked together to make the first videos.
Our original plan was to develop enough materials to have the equivalent of a full “Sunday school” program. We worked from a list of topics that we developed from curriculums of other programs. The early videos were copied onto VHS tapes and mailed to other groups of Jewish Deaf that we knew about. We also began sending, free-of-charge, these videos to Jewish Deaf and parents and educators of Jewish Deaf children who found out about them and contacted us. In the pre-YouTube days, everything was very expensive and we had literally no funding. Donations from a few families, and from the sisterhood of the synagogue helped us to keep going.
To our surprise, the vast majority of requests for videos has come from Deaf adults who missed out on a Jewish education while they were growing up, because nothing was made accessible to them. This has caused us to expand the range of topics of our videos to meet their needs. While we are still working to make videos to cover all of the basic topics, we have also made videos on Kabbalah, death, and adult relationships.
In the last few years, we have gradually stopped making hard copies (VHS and later DVD) and have posted our videos on-line.
While it still costs to produce materials, this has cut our expenses a great deal, so that we are not limited to making one or two videos a year. Our largest limiting factor is having people to make them. We have collaborated, in the past, with people from outside our community and with other organizations and are always open to working with anyone interested in making a video. Please contact us if you would like to work with us.
One of the benefits of the ability to edit our own videos ( we were late to this, probably due to the fact that JHAH has mostly been run by middle-aged parents) is that we can sometimes respond to specific requests- for example, an educator that needs materials to help a child prepare for a Bar or Bat Mitzvah.
We are happy to try to help anyone with a real need for materials- whether the person is Deaf or a family member of a Deaf person, or someone with a disability that has them using ASL ( Autism, Downs syndrome, auditory processing issue). Please contact us, if this describes your situation and you need something that you do not see on our website.
We are not, however, set up to make things for people who are working with Hearing groups who want to add something “fun” to their program. Please understand that our resources are limited, and that for some Jews this is the only access they have to their heritage. We get several requests like this, every year. It is fine if you want to access the videos we have on-line, or want a copy of the Haggadah, but please understand that our limited resources are focused on providing for a real need that exists in the Jewish community and which has not been addressed by any major groups/programs.
When we started, we were pretty much all that was available. There is now another video project which produces good materials, including short videos on each of the parshas ( Torah readings).
You can access their videos at:
One of the benefits of the ability to edit our own videos ( we were late to this, probably due to the fact that JHAH has mostly been run by middle-aged parents) is that we can sometimes respond to specific requests- for example, an educator that needs materials to help a child prepare for a Bar or Bat Mitzvah.
We are happy to try to help anyone with a real need for materials- whether the person is Deaf or a family member of a Deaf person, or someone with a disability that has them using ASL ( Autism, Downs syndrome, auditory processing issue). Please contact us, if this describes your situation and you need something that you do not see on our website.
We are not, however, set up to make things for people who are working with Hearing groups who want to add something “fun” to their program. Please understand that our resources are limited, and that for some Jews this is the only access they have to their heritage. We get several requests like this, every year. It is fine if you want to access the videos we have on-line, or want a copy of the Haggadah, but please understand that our limited resources are focused on providing for a real need that exists in the Jewish community and which has not been addressed by any major groups/programs.
When we started, we were pretty much all that was available. There is now another video project which produces good materials, including short videos on each of the parshas ( Torah readings).
You can access their videos at:
If you want to be informed when we have new videos, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel and you will be sent a notification, when we post them.
We gladly accept donations, and would be happy to send an acknowledgement card. There are also opportunities to dedicate a video in Honor or in Memory of a loved one. All donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.