Edie Goldman and Rivka Oratz - Visionaries Bringing Hope to the Blind

Edie Goldman and Rivka Oratz - Visionaries Bringing Hope to the Blind

In the last couple of years I have written many stories describing the uniqueness of the Lower East Side and some of its extraordinary inhabitants. I believe there is a story to be told about every East Sider, one more incredible than the next. No matter who these people are or what stories they have to tell, they each possess two seemingly contradictory traits: they are extremely low-key, at times even shy, and they possess a bright spark of greatness. Hagaon Harav Moshe Feinstein, zt”i, the East Side’s guiding light, possessed these two traits, which could very well be the reason those who followed him developed them as well.

This story is about one such Lower East Sider named Mrs. Edie Goldman. She is small in stature and modest in her day-to-day lifestyle. In addition, I believe she is an unsung hero with true greatness.

Edie was born and raised on the / Lower East Side. Her husband, Dovid, is a Torah scholar who spends his entire day learning Torah in Mesivta Tifereth Jerusalem (MTJ). They have three sons, the oldest a prominent doctor, the second a businessman, and a fourteen-year-old who attends MTJ. Her parents, Israel and Rose Nachman, were also lifetime East Siders. Israel Nachman worked as a melamed and Rose Nachman still works in the New York City school system.

Even as a young girl, Edie loved to teach. Ever since she can remember, she wanted to be a kindergarten teacher. Edie attended the Bais Yaakov of the Lower East Side and went on to study in Eretz Yisrael at Bais Yaakov Jerusalem, known as BJJ. Upon returning from Israel, Edie taught kindergarten for three years at the Bais Yaakov of the Lower East Side.

For the next fourteen years she taught pre-lA at Mesivta Tifereth Jerusalem. As much as Edie loved teaching, she always had a special place in her heart for people with disabilities. After reading the biography of Helen Keller, she couldn't help thinking that she would have liked to have been Annie Sullivan.

In December of 1989 she got her chance. Her cousin, Rivka Oratz, told her about a blind seven-year-old boy living in Flatbush whose parents wanted him to attend yeshivah. Since MTJ was known to have small classes, she asked Edie if she could possibly help the boy get accepted to the school.

With the permission of then- principal Rabbi Shmuel Fishelis, shlita, the boy was placed, and he became Edie's special ward. The boy was able to read Braille. After reading several books about the blind, Edie readied herself for what was to become her life's work.

Like the conscientious and dedicated teacher she was, she knew that in order to teach this boy to read from a Braille siddur, she would have to learn Hebrew Braille herself.

Edie had pinned to her wall a statement from an address Helen Keller had given at a convention of blind delegates: "We, the blind, are as indebted to Louis Braille as mankind is to Gutenberg. The raised letters under our fingers are precious pods from which has sprouted our intellectual wealth. Without a dot system, what a chaotic, inadequate affair our education would be!" Edie not only recognized the truth of Helen Keller's statement, she believed it with all her heart.

In 1990, the only available Orthodox siddur in Braille was the Shilo siddur, which had been transcribed on a manual Braillewriter. In order to copy it, a tedious process called thermoform was used, in which a plastic sheet was placed over the original Braille page and a copy molded, using the heat in the thermoform machine. It was similar to the old-fashioned steam press used by tailors.

After acquiring a photocopy of a Braille aleph-beis from an old issue of Olomeinu and a Braille Shilo siddur supplied by the Jewish Braille Institute (JBI), Edie taught herself Braille. Hour after hour of intensive study brought wonderful results.

Her prize seven-year-old student became proficient in kriah and davening.

Her experience and success with the young boy intensified her desire to become a master Braillist.

Edie enrolled in the Library of Congress study program and successfully completed the grueling course in English Braille. She had finally become a certified Braille transcriber.

After her youngest son was born in 1994, she became a stay-at-home mom, doing Braille transcribing for the Jewish Braille Institute. To the Jewish visually impaired and blind all across America, the JBI provides textbooks, reading material, siddurim, Chumashim and Gemaras. This modest East Side girl earned the distinction of being one of only seven Hebrew Braillists in the entire United States.

Despite her dizzying schedule maintaining a household and educating her own children, Edie always found time to help the blind. She even found time to transcribe parashah sheets for two young children whose father was blind, so that he would be able to ask the children their parashah questions at the Shabbos table.

Throughout the years, quietly and without fanfare, Edie made a vast difference in many lives. For a long period of time, she maintained a close relationship with a girl from Baltimore, transcribing mefarshim for her from sixth grade through high school. Edie's father, who was a baki in dikduk, dictated the mefarshim to her so she could properly transcribe Rashi, Radak, Ibn Ezra, Metzudas David, and Metzudas Tzion into Braille.

While at home taking care of her young son, she realized there was a great need for an Orthodox Braille siddur and took upon herself the task of transcribing the entire ArtScroll siddur. Because she knew she would need help with this gigantic undertaking, she enlisted the services of Dr. Abraham Nemeth, creator of the Nemeth Code for Mathematics, the math code for the blind.

By 1997, three years after beginning the project, Edie completed the Hebrew section of the Hebrew-English ArtScroll Siddur in Braille. Just last year, in 2006, Dr. Nemeth completed the English.

During those three years, in addition to everything else on her agenda, Edie did some soul-searching. She realized that her only accreditation was a Bais Yaakov Seminary Hebrew teaching license from Eretz Yisrael, which had been sufficient qualification for her previous teaching jobs. However, she now began thinking about what type of job she would be interested in when her small son began yeshivah and she returned to the work force. Thanks to her experience with the blind and her fluency in both Hebrew and English Braille, she knew exactly what that future was going to be; she would become a teacher of the blind and visually impaired.

However, one major problem existed: she had never gone to college. But that would not stop this dynamic woman.

She enrolled in Empire State College, taking correspondence courses with a mentor. She received 91 credits for life experience, mainly due to her expertise in Hebrew and English Braille. She completed the remaining credits over a four-year period and received her B.S. degree.

When her youngest child began attending MTJ, Edie enrolled in Hunter College and received her M.A. in education of the blind and visually impaired. For the past four years, Edie has been teaching kindergarten at the New York Institute for Special Education in the Bronx. On Sundays and evenings, she interacts with the frum blind children in the area, guiding them and giving them chizuk.

Edie says, "I love the work 1 do. It is so rewarding to know I am helping to make a difference in these children's lives. I daven to Hakadosh Baruch Hu that I may continue to help these children achieve their potential and succeed in life."