Sarina Roffe - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Sarina Roffe
Hearing Health, 1998
A discussion of parenting a deaf child with little communication and how access to a clear commun... more A discussion of parenting a deaf child with little communication and how access to a clear communication mode improves language and communication in the home
On Cue, 2005
Robert Frost wrote a poem in which he talked about choosing the road less traveled as he went thr... more Robert Frost wrote a poem in which he talked about choosing the road less traveled as he went through the yellow wood. In many ways, using Cued Speech with a deaf child can be equated with the line from Frost's poem. It is the road least traveled and is a circuitous route to achieving the goals of oralism. For many years, traditional auditory/oral education was the standard for use with deaf children in America. It made perfect sense that deaf children be taught to speak and use hearing aids to maximize the use of residual hearing. To be sure, the standards of the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf can be linked to the excellent speech we see in so many deaf adults today. The 1970s brought about a drastic change in deaf education. Deaf adults denounced oral education, saying that they found it frustrating and that sign was their native language. Many complained bitterly about the lack of communication in the home and that they often felt left out. They demanded the use of sign language in deaf education. Urged by deaf adults coming out of schools for the deaf, many educators turned to total communication, the combined use of lipreading , hearing aids, and sign language in English word order. There was a push toward sign language in the name of communication in the home and an increase in deaf culture. As a hearing parent of a deaf child in the 70s, I could see both sides of the issue. I wanted Simon, my prelingually profoundly deaf son, to learn to speak and lipread and use his hearing aids and residual hearing. But I also wanted to be able to freely communicate with my son for him to feel included in our family and to learn our culture and heritage as Sephardic Jews. I wondered if there was an alternative to the oral versus sign debate. With either choice, there was heavy pressure on the parents to do lessons and follow-up work at home. Another more important issue was literacy. Decades of research into literacy among deaf children showed that the average prelingually profoundly deaf person at age 18 read at the level of an 8 or 9 year old hearing child. Simon was intelligent and I did not want deafness to limit his ability to achieve. As the national debate continued, Cued Speech was gaining respect on the national front. Dr. R. Orin Cornett invented Cued Speech in 1966 at Gallaudet College in order to solve the literacy problems that had plagued deaf education for generations. Although he didn't know it at the time, Cued Speech would eventually break the paradigm, or pattern, for deaf education because it allowed deaf children to achieve in a way they never had before. After studying current methods of teaching the deaf to read and by looking at writing samples, Dr. Cornett, a physicist and mathematician with no background in deafness, drew some basic conclusions. He compared how hearing children and deaf children learn to read. Hearing children learn a majority of their language from their parents. They speak and use the language of their parents before they learn to read. Writing samples showed Cornett that even the most successful prelingually profoundly deaf oral children had difficulty with English syntax and subject verb agreement. Thus, Cornett concluded that the first step to reading is knowledge of the language. Cornett realized that deaf children were seeing English for the first time when they learned to read, a process which is reversed from how hearing children learn to read. Furthermore, everything taught in school is taught with the spoken language. Cornett believed that if the deaf child did not have a solid knowledge of spoken language, the typical prelingually profoundly deaf child was doomed to slow, laborious learning.
Community Magazine, 2019
The Keter (Hebrew for Crown) sits in secure temperature-controlled cases on the lower level of th... more The Keter (Hebrew for Crown) sits in secure temperature-controlled cases on the lower level of the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum and holds a place of honor akin to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Otherwise known as the Aleppo Codex, as that community held it for nearly 600 years, the Keter is the earliest known complete manuscript of the Bible ever written.
Dorot, 2011
Today tour guides at the Roman Coliseum, probably the most visited tourist site in Rome outside o... more Today tour guides at the Roman Coliseum, probably the most visited tourist site in Rome outside of the Vatican, casually mention that it was built by 20,000 Jewish slaves brought back by the Emperor Titus, after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Second Temple. Proof of this lies in the Arch of Titus, which depicts a menorah as part of the bounty from Jerusalem. To this day, the Talmud forbids Jews from walking under the Arch. After Titus destroyed Jerusalem, Babylonia arose as the new Jewish center.
The Jewish tradition of ethical wills was a way for a father to impart wisdom and counsel to his ... more The Jewish tradition of ethical wills was a way for a father to impart wisdom and counsel to his son or children. The father to son message in ethical wills tell us a lot about the values of society at a given point in time as well as trends over a long period of time. Ethical wills were also written as a way to impart the wisdom of a leader, such as a rabbi, to his followers.
International Sephardic Journal, 2004
Dorot, 2011
Discussion of how Jews Built the Roman Coliseum After Destruction of Second Temple and the The Hi... more Discussion of how Jews Built the Roman Coliseum After Destruction of Second Temple and the The Historical Background of Italian Jewry
Women’s Shawl – A Tradition Less Talked About, 2017
Sarina Roffe discusses the tradition of using a family shawl at circumcision ceremonies in Syrian... more Sarina Roffe discusses the tradition of using a family shawl at circumcision ceremonies in Syrian Jewish families.
Jews had lived on the Iberian Peninsula from the early centuries of the Common Era under several ... more Jews had lived on the Iberian Peninsula from the early centuries of the Common Era under several different rulers, achieving their Golden Age under Muslim rule in Spain. By the end of the 14th century, Catholic rulers were moving to conquer the Muslims and reunite Spain under one kingdom. The rulers believed that all subjects had to be Catholic and that this was an essential element to successful reunification.
Whether or not Jews were forcibly converted or voluntarily converted, from 1391 to 1492, the New Christians still had access to Jewish teachings from their Jewish neighbors, making it possible to continue to secretly observe Judaism and pass it on to the next generation.
The idea that Iberian Jews could wake up one day as observant Jews and the next day accept baptism and be observant Catholics flies in the face of logic. How could these forcibly converted Jews – Anusim - discard a lifetime of teachings and its supporting religious and social structure one day and embrace a completely new theology the next? What were the differences in theology? What psychological challenges did New Christians face as Catholics? While it is difficult to answer these questions more than five centuries later, this paper will attempt to discuss the psychological challenges facing the fundamental belief systems of the first generation of forced converts.
This paper will attempt to answer questions about the link between the Christian attitude of Jews... more This paper will attempt to answer questions about the link between the Christian attitude of Jews as ‘others’ and anti-Semitism.
Hearing Health, 1998
A discussion of parenting a deaf child with little communication and how access to a clear commun... more A discussion of parenting a deaf child with little communication and how access to a clear communication mode improves language and communication in the home
On Cue, 2005
Robert Frost wrote a poem in which he talked about choosing the road less traveled as he went thr... more Robert Frost wrote a poem in which he talked about choosing the road less traveled as he went through the yellow wood. In many ways, using Cued Speech with a deaf child can be equated with the line from Frost's poem. It is the road least traveled and is a circuitous route to achieving the goals of oralism. For many years, traditional auditory/oral education was the standard for use with deaf children in America. It made perfect sense that deaf children be taught to speak and use hearing aids to maximize the use of residual hearing. To be sure, the standards of the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf can be linked to the excellent speech we see in so many deaf adults today. The 1970s brought about a drastic change in deaf education. Deaf adults denounced oral education, saying that they found it frustrating and that sign was their native language. Many complained bitterly about the lack of communication in the home and that they often felt left out. They demanded the use of sign language in deaf education. Urged by deaf adults coming out of schools for the deaf, many educators turned to total communication, the combined use of lipreading , hearing aids, and sign language in English word order. There was a push toward sign language in the name of communication in the home and an increase in deaf culture. As a hearing parent of a deaf child in the 70s, I could see both sides of the issue. I wanted Simon, my prelingually profoundly deaf son, to learn to speak and lipread and use his hearing aids and residual hearing. But I also wanted to be able to freely communicate with my son for him to feel included in our family and to learn our culture and heritage as Sephardic Jews. I wondered if there was an alternative to the oral versus sign debate. With either choice, there was heavy pressure on the parents to do lessons and follow-up work at home. Another more important issue was literacy. Decades of research into literacy among deaf children showed that the average prelingually profoundly deaf person at age 18 read at the level of an 8 or 9 year old hearing child. Simon was intelligent and I did not want deafness to limit his ability to achieve. As the national debate continued, Cued Speech was gaining respect on the national front. Dr. R. Orin Cornett invented Cued Speech in 1966 at Gallaudet College in order to solve the literacy problems that had plagued deaf education for generations. Although he didn't know it at the time, Cued Speech would eventually break the paradigm, or pattern, for deaf education because it allowed deaf children to achieve in a way they never had before. After studying current methods of teaching the deaf to read and by looking at writing samples, Dr. Cornett, a physicist and mathematician with no background in deafness, drew some basic conclusions. He compared how hearing children and deaf children learn to read. Hearing children learn a majority of their language from their parents. They speak and use the language of their parents before they learn to read. Writing samples showed Cornett that even the most successful prelingually profoundly deaf oral children had difficulty with English syntax and subject verb agreement. Thus, Cornett concluded that the first step to reading is knowledge of the language. Cornett realized that deaf children were seeing English for the first time when they learned to read, a process which is reversed from how hearing children learn to read. Furthermore, everything taught in school is taught with the spoken language. Cornett believed that if the deaf child did not have a solid knowledge of spoken language, the typical prelingually profoundly deaf child was doomed to slow, laborious learning.
Community Magazine, 2019
The Keter (Hebrew for Crown) sits in secure temperature-controlled cases on the lower level of th... more The Keter (Hebrew for Crown) sits in secure temperature-controlled cases on the lower level of the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum and holds a place of honor akin to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Otherwise known as the Aleppo Codex, as that community held it for nearly 600 years, the Keter is the earliest known complete manuscript of the Bible ever written.
Dorot, 2011
Today tour guides at the Roman Coliseum, probably the most visited tourist site in Rome outside o... more Today tour guides at the Roman Coliseum, probably the most visited tourist site in Rome outside of the Vatican, casually mention that it was built by 20,000 Jewish slaves brought back by the Emperor Titus, after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Second Temple. Proof of this lies in the Arch of Titus, which depicts a menorah as part of the bounty from Jerusalem. To this day, the Talmud forbids Jews from walking under the Arch. After Titus destroyed Jerusalem, Babylonia arose as the new Jewish center.
The Jewish tradition of ethical wills was a way for a father to impart wisdom and counsel to his ... more The Jewish tradition of ethical wills was a way for a father to impart wisdom and counsel to his son or children. The father to son message in ethical wills tell us a lot about the values of society at a given point in time as well as trends over a long period of time. Ethical wills were also written as a way to impart the wisdom of a leader, such as a rabbi, to his followers.
International Sephardic Journal, 2004
Dorot, 2011
Discussion of how Jews Built the Roman Coliseum After Destruction of Second Temple and the The Hi... more Discussion of how Jews Built the Roman Coliseum After Destruction of Second Temple and the The Historical Background of Italian Jewry
Women’s Shawl – A Tradition Less Talked About, 2017
Sarina Roffe discusses the tradition of using a family shawl at circumcision ceremonies in Syrian... more Sarina Roffe discusses the tradition of using a family shawl at circumcision ceremonies in Syrian Jewish families.
Jews had lived on the Iberian Peninsula from the early centuries of the Common Era under several ... more Jews had lived on the Iberian Peninsula from the early centuries of the Common Era under several different rulers, achieving their Golden Age under Muslim rule in Spain. By the end of the 14th century, Catholic rulers were moving to conquer the Muslims and reunite Spain under one kingdom. The rulers believed that all subjects had to be Catholic and that this was an essential element to successful reunification.
Whether or not Jews were forcibly converted or voluntarily converted, from 1391 to 1492, the New Christians still had access to Jewish teachings from their Jewish neighbors, making it possible to continue to secretly observe Judaism and pass it on to the next generation.
The idea that Iberian Jews could wake up one day as observant Jews and the next day accept baptism and be observant Catholics flies in the face of logic. How could these forcibly converted Jews – Anusim - discard a lifetime of teachings and its supporting religious and social structure one day and embrace a completely new theology the next? What were the differences in theology? What psychological challenges did New Christians face as Catholics? While it is difficult to answer these questions more than five centuries later, this paper will attempt to discuss the psychological challenges facing the fundamental belief systems of the first generation of forced converts.
This paper will attempt to answer questions about the link between the Christian attitude of Jews... more This paper will attempt to answer questions about the link between the Christian attitude of Jews as ‘others’ and anti-Semitism.