[sw-l] hebrew sign language

[nemery at U.WASHINGTON.EDU]

Hi Shoshona,

That's great that you're trying to find resources for this child.

Sign languages derive from interactions in communities of Deaf people, not from spoken
languages (or written versions of spoken languages). So as far as I know there isn't a Hebrew
sign language, although there may be ways of encoding Hebrew on the hands.  (Like, there is
Signed English, which is a code more than a language - it isn't the same as either American Sign
Language or British Sign Language - which also aren't the same as each other.)

There is an Israeli Sign Language - it seems like a lot of the research on it has been done by Irit
Meir.  That would be understood by Deaf Israelis, but not by Deaf Jews of other countries, unless
they had gone to Israel and learned it.

If what you want is to help a Deaf child in England with Hebrew school, for example studying the
Torah to prepare for a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, maybe it would be good to see if you can find anyone
who interprets at a synagogue, or find a synagogue with Deaf members, or a Jewish interpreter
who used to go to Hebrew school, somewhere in England.  Then you could find out how certain
concepts in Hebrew can be expressed in British Sign Language, which is probably the sign
language that the child is familiar with.

There is a web-site that glosses a lot of Jewish services for American Sign Language (ASL)
translation, by David Bar-Tzur, you can find it at
http://www.theinterpretersfriend.com/songs/toc.html#jewish
He has come up with an ASL interpretation, and written the English gloss to represent the ASL
signs.  It might work to substitute British Sign Language signs if the grammars of ASL and BSL
are similar enough.

That's just my best guess - good luck!

Nancy Emery  (in Seattle, USA)




On Sat, 2 Apr 2005, bwhite wrote:

> I too would be interested in Hebrew sign!!
>
> brenda
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Valerie Sutton
> To: SIGNWRITING List
> Cc: Shosh76765 at AOL.COM
> Sent: Saturday, April 02, 2005 9:49 PM
> Subject: [sw-l] hebrew sign language
>
>
> SignWriting List
> April 2, 2005
>
> From: Shosh76765 at aol.com
> Date: April 2, 2005 2:43:26 PM PST
> To: DAC at signwriting.org
> Subject: hebrew sign language
>
>
> hello
> i was wondering if you could help me. i am from manchester uk, and i look after special needs
children. one of the children that i look after is deaf and i was wondering if you knew where i
could go and find hebrew sign language.
> you can contact me on: shosh76765 at aol.com
>
> thankyou for your help
>
> shoshana brennan