The Denver Jewish news., 1923-02-07
THE JEW WHO ORIGINATED THE
METHOD OF LlP-READING
From "Glimpses Into American Jewish
History"
BY RAY BRIL-

Q
Back i'm 1919 in the city of Philadel-
phia there lived David c. Seixas. Il
Jew. who kept n crOckery store on
Market Street between Sixteenth and
Seventeenth streets. Bur If running
n crockery store were his sole interest
there would he no story to tell about
the Jew who sought To make the deaf
mute TO talk. And although David G.
SeiNas was just store-keeper, he had
/. some very original ideas.
One of these was that although n
person may have been born deaf. there
WAS no reason in the world why he
should he dumb, too. He felt that the
ma jority of the deaf people who We're
mute were so. not because of any i'm
pairment of the vocal organs. but he
cause of ignorance of how these organs
should he used so as to produce sound
II became the passion of his life to
teach these people how to talk. He
started with the children, and in spite
of being n man of humble means. he
took into his home eleven children. of
which six We're girls and five We're
boys.
Not only did he teach these little
\ ones. but he also fed and clothed them.
Great was his delight when he heard
for the first time sounds coming from
The method that he used was as in
genious as it was simple. He would
show the child how to use the tongue
and lips so as to produce the various
child how to utter words. This method
today is accepted as the latest thing
in the instruction of deaf mutes. 1t
goes by the name of the lip-reading
method But at the time of David G.
Seixas it had no such name and 1t was
merely regarded as the peculiar method
used by the Jew.
David Seiyas wsls so pleased with the
results he had achieved, that he de-
cided to open up a school for the deaf
and dumb. So just a year later. in
1920. he opened up the Philadelphia
Asylum for Deaf Children. at Market
Street near Sixteenth Street. Some of
the most influential Jews in Philadel-
phia were in back of him. among them
being Jacob and Joseph GratZ. of the
well-known Gratz family. the sister of
whom. Rebecca Gratz, was the proto-
type of Rebecca in Scott's Ivanhoe.
Seixas believed that the State ought
to he made to take hand in the care
and the instruction of the deaf by n
clever device he accomplished his pur-
pose. This was his mode of procedure.
One cold day in January he took the
brightest of his pupils for little visit
to the State Legislature. He intro
duced the children to the members pres
ent. And he had the political rulers
of the State test the children by the
way of speaking TO them in order to tell
whether the children really understood
what was being said by simply watch
ing the movements of the lips of the
person talking. The legislature was so
impressed that it voted that the sum
of eight thousand dollars be granted
to the Asylum for Deaf Children in or
der to enable it to branch out. At that
time the name of the school was
changed to the Pennsylvania Institute
for the Deaf and Dumb. II bears that
name to this very day. And it is now
the largest and the best equipped
| s,.h fn, lao In 81, ,I,
\ year later charges were brought
against Seixas and he was forced to
give up the principalship of the school
although the accusations against him
left Philadelphia. But the idea that
he had been the father of grew and
thrived there. SeiXas cut adrift from
his friends and years later he died in
1850 in South Bend. Indiana forgotten
and unmourned
Now for the story of David G. Seixas'
life. His father was the famous Rev
Gershom Mendes Seixas of the Rev
olutionary Period. When the war
broke out Rabbi Seixas WAS the min
lister of the Shearith Israel Synagog
He left his pulpit to shoulder n gun,
thereby earning for himself the title
of the Minister of the Revolution"
The son also served in the war
Coming to a later day and to an
other city we unearth tale filed with
human pathos regarding the instruc-
tion of the deaf mute. The year so
alluded to is 1864. the city, New York
In that year Jewish couple by the
name of Isaac and Hannah Rosenfeld
deaf. The parents We're heartbroken.
They endeavOred. however to mnke