Skokie rabbi helped deaf people connect with their faith

Rabbi Douglas Goldhamer, who founded a synagogue in Skokie for deaf people and a Hebrew seminary to train rabbis to communicate with them, was buried with the little things he used to give away to help others.

At his funeral this week, he was dressed in his customary tweed suit and saddle shoes. His wife, Peggy Bagley, tucked $5 in his pocket because he used to pull over his car to give money to people who were down on their luck. There also were some coins - he liked giving those to kids when they beat him at air hockey.

And there was "some cat food and some Milk-Bones," his wife said, "in case he meets some furry friends along the way."

Goldhamer died of heart failure Feb. 3 at Evanston Hospital. He was 76.

Among his many students at Congregation Bene Shalom, the Reform Jewish synagogue he established half a century ago, was Oscar-winner Marlee Matlin, the Morton Grove native who won "Best Actress" in 1987 for the movie "Children of a Lesser God." He helped her study for and celebrate her bat mitzvah.

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