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And the Journey Begins
“How remarkable that his deaf-blindness has expanded rather than reduced his universe, and how inspiring for the rest of us.” --Harlan Lane, editor of The Deaf Experience: Classics in Language and Education Born deaf in 1942 to an Orthodox Jewish family in South Africa, Cyril Azelrod could not walk until he was three years old. He also struggled to communicate event the most basic ideas, which prompted his parents to choose a radical course — they placed him in St. Vincent’s School for the Deaf, a Catholic residential school. There, he formed a close bond with the Dominican nuns. They tried to accommodate his parents’ desire that he be taught Judaism, but Axelrod found himself drawn to the Catholic religion. Eventually, in his 20s, he experienced a deeply emotional conversion to Catholicism and later became one of the first deaf persons in the world to train for the Catholic priesthood. At the same time, he worked hard to integrate his Jewish culture with his new faith, an achievement marked by his mother’s attendance at his ordination. Axelrod gained renown for his pioneering work with multiracial deaf people living under apartheid in south Africa. But, in his 30s, he faced another challenge when he was diagnosed with Usher syndrome, a condition that eventually would cause him to be blind. Undaunted, he traveled to Macau, China, to continue empowering deaf people. His steadfast conviction that deaf and deaf-blind people; should be able to fulfill their potential, whatever their faith, color, or creed, continues to underpin his life’s work, which he pursues tirelessly to this day. Father Cyril Axelrod is the Pastoral Support Development Coordinator for DeafBlind UK and a certified aromatherapy masseuse in England. ISBN 0-945252-55-6, 6 1/8 x 9 1/8 paperback, 228 pages, photographs, illustration, index $29.95s
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