The Jewish Deaf Association launch new website: Jewish Deaf History (London)

The Jewish Deaf Association (JDA) has launched a new website ‘Jewish Deaf History (London)’ which shares videos, photos and memorabilia from this community over the years.

The website launch also ties in with the JDA’s 70th anniversary and the Residential School for Jewish Deaf Children’s 100th anniversary to remember their pupils and their memories since the school first opened in 1860.

I spoke to committee members Ann Clements and Carolyn Denmark to discuss the significance of this website, with contributions also from Mira Goldberg and Barry David.

Hi! Can you tell us a bit about you and your involvement in Jewish Deaf Association 

Ann: My name is Ann Clements, my parents were both Deaf. I am one of the committee members for Jewish Deaf History (London) and I also am responsible alongside with Barry David and Daniel Clements for the overall design of the website, updating the website and maintaining this.

My late parents were both members of the JDA when the club was in Cazenove road back in the 1950s. They both met and married. When I left school I asked my parents about meeting a Jewish Deaf man and as I went to Non Jewish school and didn’t know how find where there was a Jewish Deaf community. This is when I was told about the JDA.

So I joined the JDA back in the 1980s and there I met my late husband Harvey Clements and have been a member since then. Now of course I work for the JDA and it’s like one big family. I have been a member for over 30 years and I have also wored for the JDA for over 16 years in various roles. My current role is Dcafe (Deaf cafe) manager and outings manager. I love my job and being with the Deaf community.

Carolyn: I am Carolyn Denmark/Nabarro, I come from six generations of Deaf families and have several personal stories relating to the JDA from my late grandparents and my parents as well as my extended relatives as most of my family also attended the Residential School for Jewish Deaf Children (RSJDC).

I am also aware that some of my relatives attended Oak Lodge School for the Deaf which was practically next door to the Residential School for Jewish Deaf Children (RSJDC.) I believe this was a worldwide first – having two large Deaf schools standing next to each other at Nightingale Lane, Balham, London.

During my childhood, my parents always took me and my deaf sister Linda, to Jewish Deaf Association (JDA) on special occasions as they opened on Sundays during our school holidays. I loved watching older people converse with each other and I was always very curious and recalled that they said I was very nosey because I asked too many questions.

I loved watching the elderly members talked about their lives and chat to each other. I was lucky as they shared their personal stories with me, some of which have always stayed with me throughout my life. I do value their stories and my experiences growing up at RSDJC and JDA.

I was thrilled to put our very first Jewish Deaf History (London) on the map. I was happy to offer advice to the team from time to time and helped with the translation work on the website.

How did the idea for the Jewish Deaf History (London) website come to life and develop?

Ann: During lockdown I was sorting out our family old photos. I had boxes of old photographs from my late husband Harvey and late in-laws – hundreds of photos were sorted! I came across historical photographs including those from RSJDC, JDA, Deaf sports such as the Deaf Olympics. I thought to myself, ‘why keep these hidden in boxes and albums?’

I then chatted to other committee members such as Barry David and we came up with the idea of creating a new website for the Jewish Deaf History within the London area.

Barry spoke to his Uncle Harold Fallman who had shelves of boxes and albums full of documents and photographs and told him our idea. Harold quickly offered to make a donation to get this website up and running. So this is when the process started.

Carolyn: I was also involved in a recent project with British Deaf Association as Deaf Heritage Officer which was a valuable experience for me and that started me off thinking more about how I would like to see a similar project happen with a Jewish Deaf History (London) website.

Barry David is a friend of mine from way back as he and his parents are also members of JDA and we always talked a lot about our experiences growing up in the Jewish Deaf Community. Barry and I thought more about how to apply for funding to set up the project and the possibility of setting up a website for Deaf Jewish History.

Barry’s Uncle Harold kept so many valuable photographs and videos of the olden days as his hobby was photography and he used an old 8mm movie camera. Barry was able to look through them and was blown away by them.

He wanted to do something so he introduced me to Ann Clements as she has also several fantastic photographs and videos from Harvey, her late husband as he came from a large deaf family as well.

The three of us share the same philosophy, we felt strongly that it would benefit our younger generation if we could try and set up something to preserve our deaf parents’s history from their generations and pass this on to our young deaf generation today.

After watching these videos I felt we should show the clips on the website for members to see old signs as they were used at the time. I am sure many people outside of JDA would be very interested to know more about our old Jewish signs too.

Did you stumble upon any particularly interesting or surprising memorabilia or photos?

Ann: We found the census for RSJDC dating back to 1871 which is fabulous! Especially where we have families of the ex pupils who went to the school in those years, we are able to confirm their school attendance.

There is a photograph dated 1922 and the names are written on the back by the late Belvin Austin. We were able to confirm the names with the 1921 census which is amazing. So many fabulous photographs and videos. Of course with me personally I enjoyed seeing the in-laws photos of when they were at RSJDC in their younger days as well as JDA photos and deaf sports.

Do any committee members have any personal memories or family experience of the Residential School for Jewish Deaf Children before it closed down?

Carolyn: Yes, in fact I was the youngest pupil at RSJDC when they closed down, I was 8 years old and was a boarder since I was two years old.

I am amazed because I am able to recall so much during my short time at RSJDC. Mira Goldberg (nee Levy) was a year older than me and we shared our journey together with another cousin of ours Maria Olsen who is a year half older than us.

We do meet up once a year and talk about the old days. We bring our old photographs and share them. Since the pandemic we have not had the chance to meet up yet.

Can you tell me more about RSJDC – what was it like? Why did it close down?

Carolyn: The education was delivered via the oral method, as most deaf schools were back then. We shared common experiences growing up in an oral education, like many other deaf schoolers, we struggled and some of us were punished for using sign language.

There were many stories we shared through the VHS video clips that were taken many years ago, unfortunately VHS tapes are becoming obsolete. This is was why we felt it was important to convert them and upload them to the website so these rich stories could be shared from the members and ex-pupils who have sadly departed from us and we wanted to preserve their stories and signing.

The school itself unfortunately had to close down in 1965 because of the dwindling number of Jewish pupils enrolled at RSJDC.

What sort of events do JDA hold all year round?

Ann: JDA holds various events/activities for people of all faith. You do not have to be Jewish to come to the JDA. Activities include our weekly Deaf cafe run by Deaf volunteers who are seeking employment, learning to up their skills, along with health and hygiene training and other training alongside these. We serve freshly made lunch, cakes which are baked by the volunteers themselves.

We also have our weekly Wednesday club for the elderly where they pay a fixed fee for activities, a three course lunch and tea, and even lip reading classes. We also host Jewish festival events, computer classes, and many other events.

How has the JDA celebrated the launch of this website?

Ann: The celebration happened on 8th May 2022. Since it was JDAs 70th anniversary last year during lockdown we decided to do a belated 70th anniversary celebration joint with ex RSJDC reunion and new website launch. Of course it makes sense as there is a large overlap of same people who were ex pupils and are JDA members.

Just under 100 people attended with an exhibition of photos and memorabilia. We enjoyed a lovely three course meal and speeches including seeing the new website launch which was launched by Harold Fallman. It was a lovely event. It was wonderful to see Jewish Deaf people young and old gathering and sharing stories.

Carolyn: We are very proud of our achievement. With much thanks to the rest of committee members who volunteered and made it possible today to launch our much needed and valuable website for present and future generations to enjoy.

Ann: If you have any photos, trophies, memorabilia, videos to share or wish to contact us please email us at jdeafhistory2021@gmail.com

Take a look at JDA’s new website at:

www.jdeafhistorylondon.co.uk

They also have a Facebook group link on their website.