American Sign Language is still a new language--only a few hundred years old. But signed communication has been a part of human culture for thousands of years. Come explore how, over the course of Jewish history, sign language came to be understood (and sometimes misunderstood)--opening new channels of communication between hearing Jews and Deaf Jews.

Texts will be provided in their original Hebrew and Aramaic with English translations. Previous background in any of these subjects is helpful but not required.

In July of 2022, Rabbi Jonah Rank began serving as President and Rosh Yeshivah of Hebrew Seminary: A Rabbinical School for Deaf & Hearing. Rabbi Rank holds a MA in Jewish Thought from the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he was ordained in 2015. Rabbi Rank has been involved in Jewish education in a variety of capacities, including as a Community Educator during the summers of 2011-2013 at BIMA, the Brandeis Institute for Music & Arts teacher; and a middle school Judaics teacher at the Solomon Schechter Day School of Manhattan. In Halifax, Nova Scotia, Rabbi Rank served as the Maskil (“Teacher-of-Tradition”) at the Shaar Shalom Synagogue, during which time Rabbi Rank initiated the annual Halifax Communal Beit Midrash, and partnered with the community’s Education Committee to revitalize the Halifax Joint Hebrew School. Following his family’s return to the U.S, he became the Director of the Shul School at Kehilat HaNahar in New Hope, Pennsylvania. While managing the supplementary school, Rabbi Rank co-led a Virtual Youth Arts Beit Midrash serving youth across five states, designed a virtual reality Purim carnival, and created curricular materials for young Jews to engage with Jewish notions of responsibility towards marginalized communities and to the planet. Rabbi Rank has authored several academic articles, served as the Managing Editor of Zeramim: An Online Journal of Applied Jewish Studies, and is currently editing Siddur Kanfey HaShekhinah, a forthcoming traditional Ashkenazi Hebrew prayer book, where the language referring to God follows feminine grammar. An advocate for civic causes, Rabbi Rank was appointed in 2021 to the Environmental Advisory Council in the Township of Lower Makefield, Pennsylvania, and contributed to local efforts towards increasing access to public recycling and clean energy there until his family moved to Natick, Massachusetts.