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Jewish Deaf Society of Baltimore

The Jewish Deaf Society of Baltimore is a Deaf Jewish community organization in Baltimore. Saul Rosen helped found the Society in 1974, and he and Miri Rosen remained central participants throughout their adult lives. Their daughter, Annie Whitaker, grew up within the Society’s community, and later generations of the Whitaker-Rosen family participated through family gatherings, religious observance, and Deaf and deafblind community life.

Community Life

The Society provides a shared community space for Deaf Jewish Baltimoreans and their families. Its gatherings use ASL and incorporate spoken English and tactile access when needed. The Society’s community room has hosted religious and cultural events, family milestones, meetings, and memorials.

Saul and Miri brought Annie into the community from childhood. Annie’s family later brought RJ Whitaker to Society events from infancy, giving him regular contact with Deaf Jewish adults as part of his ordinary extended community.

The Rosen and Whitaker Families

Saul co-founded the Society in 1974 and remained active in its meetings and community life. He attended signed Torah study for more than forty years, twice monthly through his eighties. Other participants adapted their signing to his narrowing visual field. Miri became one of the Society’s longstanding social anchors. Annie celebrated a signed bat mitzvah within the community, and her marriage to Robbie Whitaker included ASL and English so her parents and the Society community could participate fully.

Saul kept a battered tin Society tzedakah box with silver-painted lettering on his kitchen counter. He added coins before Shabbat each Friday, and its contents were counted and donated to the Society annually. The box remained with him through the move into Annie and Robbie’s home.

The Society also remained part of family bereavement and remembrance. Saul and Miri’s joint memorial was held in its community room after their deaths in October 2044. Approximately three hundred people attended, including hearing neighbors who had learned Saul’s signed greetings. The service used ASL with voicing interpretation, and the eulogies lasted three hours. Attendees laughed and cried, and Saul’s grandchildren signed jokes toward his closed coffin in answer to his recurring birthday threat.

A joint photograph of Saul and Miri hung in the community room afterward, with a brass plaque reading “We walked to the dining hall.” Their private phrase became a community expression of sustained commitment. The Rosens’ former rowhouse passed to Annie and continued in use as accessible guest housing for the Society.

Organizations Jewish Organizations Deaf Community Baltimore Organizations