Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.

Rabbi Darby Leigh is the most musical deaf rabbi you could ever find. He does not let his profound hearing impairment stand in the way of enjoying being our spiritual leader. In his three years as our rabbi, he has started a tradition in which each boy or girl who becomes bar or bat mitzvah gets a chance to share his or her learning by leading a congregational discussion. Rabbi Leigh encourages us to find the joy in Jewish observance and worship and to make everything we do authentic.

— David Orlinoff

Watch a segment of Rabbi Leigh’s rabbinic journey:

Watch Rabbi Leigh describe how he translates Shema for ASL speakers:

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.