Daily Archives: September 23, 2005

Organization Helps the Visually-impaired Feel Their Way Into the New Year

There is not a spot of ink on the pages of one of the High Holy Day prayer books produced by David Toiv’s nonprofit organization, the Jewish Heritage for the Blind — just line after line of raised bumps.

The prayer book, which is in Braille, has been distributed free of charge for more than 20 years. “[The visually impaired] should have the same opportunity to learn what’s going on, just like sighted people,” Toiv said.

To that end, the Brooklyn-based organization produces a variety of Orthodox religious materials for the blind and for the visually impaired, including religious storybooks for children, prayer books for the major Jewish holidays and, most recently, prayers for Sabbath candle lighting and for visiting the cemetery. The group has distributed to all kosher restaurants in the United States large-print booklets containing the grace said after meals.

Go Ahead — Read That Book in Shul

The sounds of the Days of Awe in synagogue: the cry of the shofar, the cantor chanting age-old melodies that go right to the heart and congregants alternatively whispering and shushing each other. Then there’s the gentle click of pages turning to their own rhythm, not in unison with the congregation.

The latter refers to a not-so-secret habit that’s growing in popularity, as an increasing number of people bring outside reading material with them to services. Some do this openly, even encouraged by rabbis, and some tuck a volume into a tallit bag for transport and then slide it into an open machzor, much like the high school tradition of folding comic books into math texts.

These independent readers — who might pull out a book during a particular part of the service in which they lose interest — are likely to be reading serious books, trying to deepen their experience of the holidays. From my experience, it’s not as though congregants are thumbing through airport novels or diet books; these special days require special books.

What Will Ratner Reap?

Downtown Brooklyn development will likely draw thousands of Jews seeking affordable housing, but where they will come from remains to be seen.

Bruce Ratner’s plan to redevelop 22 acres of downtown Brooklyn, which includes thousands of new units of low-income housing, will likely bolster Jewish life in an area where it has long been sparse.But some observers are predicting that a lack of infrastructure and other factors will prevent, at least in the short term, the new neighborhood from luring many residents of other solidly Jewish communities.

“I don’t see other neighborhoods emptying out,” said demographer Jack Ukeles, who worked on the 2002 Jewish Community Study of New York.

The controversial $3.5 billion Atlantic Rail Yards project, approved earlier this month by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, would create what critics call a city within a borough that will require nearly $1 billion in public subsidies.