Rabbi Dena Bodian was ordained by the Hebrew Seminary for the Deaf in Chicago. (Photo courtesy Dena Bodian) WHIPPANY, N.J. (New Jersey Jewish News) - Although she herself is not deaf, Dena Bodian developed a fascination for American Sign Language during her childhood in New Jersey.

“I was in Florence Heller’s kindergarten class at Morristown Jewish Center, and she taught the Sh’ma with sign language,” she said. “Later, when I attended the Hebrew Academy, we used to bentsch [say the grace after meals] in sign language.

“I signed the Sh’ma to myself at night for 10 or 15 years. It didn’t seem strange to me at the time, but I guess it was quite unorthodox.”

Unorthodox or not, it stuck. “Having been exposed to sign language at a very young age – before I could even read – I guess I always equated sign language with Judaism,” Bodian said.

This summer, Bodian was able to combine both passions when she was ordained as a rabbi by the Hebrew Seminary of the Deaf, a Chicago-based institution that trains clergy and teachers to serve the needs of the Jewish deaf and hearingimpaired. Bodian, 31, and two other women rabbis were ordained by the 13- year-old institution, which is associated with the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary.

Ordination marked the latest peak in a lifetime of involvement and early leadership in Jewish life.

After getting a master’s degree, Bodian moved to Leesburg, Va, where she served as a lay leader for a small synagogue, worked for an educational video company licensing images and took night classes in ASL translation. A night school classmate told her about the Hebrew Seminary of the Deaf.

“I thought, Wow!,” she recalled. She dropped out of the night classes, quit her job and moved to Chicago.

Signing has always held a certain fascination for Bodian. “It has a fantastic aesthetic,” she said. But even after receiving ordination from HSD, she said, she is “not super-fluent.”

That doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a significant skill set. She gave her commencement address in both English and in ASL.

She also has a deep understanding of the barriers people who are deaf face in joining Jewish communal life.

“Deaf Jews are a demographic that frequently go unheard. It’s hard to find a synagogue that is not wheelchair accessible, but they often fail to address the linguistic issues deaf people face,” Bodian said. “The deaf community not only don’t hear the prayers, they can’t hear the sermons, they can’t shmooze during kiddush. It’s not a handicap issue you can solve with a hearing device; it’s much more a linguistic issue.

“But I will know how to make my community more accessible through providing the right resources and offering education for the broader community regarding what it is deaf Jews need to be part of the community,” she said.

“I have the best job,” she said. “