[Deaf students helping each other learn to vocalize by using oral education techniques, probably Lexington School for the Deaf, Upper East Side, New York]

The Lexington School for the Deaf was founded by a group of progressive German Jewish philanthropists in 1864. The school introduced in America the oral method of education for the deaf, pioneered by Austrian Jew Bernard Engelsmann, in which deaf children were taught to lip-read and speak, rather than use sign language. Dozens of recently discovered photographs by Vishniac documenting the American Jewish deaf community, including a deaf theater company’s play rehearsals and students learning Engelsmann’s techniques, provide a unique record of deaf American Jewish culture during and after World War II.