Iosif Florianovich Geilman

Iosif Florianovich Geilman (Russian: Иосиф Флорианович Гейльман; 3 March 1923 — 13 June 2010) was a Soviet and international expert on sign language, a sign language interpreter and the author of multiple publications used to this day.

Also, he was the founder and first director of the first All-Russian Educational Center for the Deaf known as LRC (Leningrad Rehabilitation Center), where hearing-impaired from all across the USSR came to receive higher education or trade skills.

Iosif Geilman was one of the key experts on the committee entrusted to develop Gestuno, an international sign language.

Iosif Geilman was born into a Russian/Jewish/German family in post-revolutionary Russia on March 3, 1923.

His ancestors emigrated to Russia from Germany and one of them was a Fire Chief in the city of St. Petersburg.

Iosif's parents, Florian and Elizaveta Geilman, were deaf, but commanded spoken language as well as sign language.

Iosif's father, Florian, graduated from the Stieglitz Arts and Crafts Academy and then worked as a design engineer at the Elektrosila Plant.

Elizaveta graduated from the Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens and then worked at the Karl Bulla Photo Editing Shop.

She was also an actress at the Drama Studio for the Deaf until the Studio was dismantled in 1937 and its director became a political prisoner.

Iosif also had an older brother, Oleg, who moved to the city of Gelendzhik after getting married and then served in World War II and was a highly awarded officer.

The ambiance and atmosphere at Iosif's home inspired his future professional path.

His family held gatherings for the deaf community of Saint Petersburg, and the young Iosif would interpret radio broadcasts for the guests.

At the age of 15, Iosif joined the All-Russian Society of the Deaf as a sign language interpreter, becoming the youngest such interpreter in Leningrad and two years later, he became a student at the Leningrad State University studying history.

In June 1941, just before the Great Patriotic War broke out, Pavel Saveliev, the first chairman of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf, asked Iosif to serve as a guide and interpreter for a group of 300 deaf children embarking on a boat tour on the Volga River from Moscow to Astrakhan.

However, World War II impeded the plans, and Iosif and the group were stranded in the city of Yaroslavl.

Between 1941 and 1943, the young man was responsible for caring for these deaf children.

In 1944, after the siege was lifted, Iosif returned to Leningrad to discover that his parents had not survived the severe days of starvation and privation during the Siege of Leningrad.

To commemorate his parents, Iosif began working as a sign language interpreter for the All-Russian Society of the Deaf.

It was also during these years that Iosif reunited with Marina, a childhood friend.

Marina's family offered him hospitality when he had nowhere to go, and the two soon married.

While working as a sign-language interpreter, Iosif uncovered the need to perfect the Russian Sign Language, as his observations led him to believe that it had a certain degree of paucity and scarcity, as it had a certain scarcity of expression in the way it was used by the Russian community of the deaf, and his observations impelled him to act.

Per Iosif's initiative, a specialized school (#92) of secondary education with in-person and distance learning systems was opened in the 1950s for the working young men and women of Leningrad with a hearing impairment.

The role of the principal was taken on by Marina Anohina, after Iosif showed her his first publication, a primer book for the deaf.

This event launched Iosif's active and profound research into the particularities of the Russian Sign Language.

Iosif outlined his findings in his prolific research publications, which included his 1956 manual titled Signing and Fingerspelling: Practice Exercises and Texts, The Fingerspelling Alphabet and Signs of the Deaf in 1957 and a four-volume dictionary in the 1970s titled Unique Communication Methods of the Deaf.

Teaching played a major role in Iosif's career.

He authored a manual called Training Interpreters: Study Plan and Course Programs, for which the target audience was actually students learning sign language from scratch.

Some 200 novice interpreters were trained through Iosif Geilman's proprietary courses in 1961–1968, referred by local branches of the All-Russian Society for the Deaf.

Mr. Geilman's pursuits were not limited to the space within Soviet borders.

Even during the years of the Iron Curtain, Iosif became a prominent name in the international sign language community and attended multiple congresses and symposiums abroad, both in the Eastern Bloc and in the West, in such countries as Italy and the United States – a fact signifying eminence in professional circles, for most Soviet citizens were not permitted to visit the West.

Iosif was the deputy chairman of the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) and part of the expert committee evolving Gestuno, the original international sign language, which is now more commonly known as ISL (International Sign Language).

Mr. Geilman was a member of the WFD committee on social rehabilitation of the deaf for many years.

He was friends with William Castle of The National Technical Institute for the Deaf, which is part of the Rochester Institute of Technology and the 1st Technical School for the deaf in the world.

The two colleagues and advocates for the deaf met again later when Iosif retired and emigrated to the U.S.

A turning point in the life of Iosif Geilman was the opening of the ASD LRC Technical School (All-Russian Society of the Deaf Leningrad Rehabilitation Center), an educational facility unique for the USSR in its concept.

The center became a one-of-a-kind educational hub, where talented young men and women came to study from all over the USSR.

The main mission was to bring the hearing and/or speech-impaired up to par in literacy and professional capacity and enable them to stand on their own two feet in social and professional circles.

These young people received quality education as illustrators, accountants, organizers of cultural and educational events, sign language interpreters, radio-electronic equipment specialists, bookbinders, type-setters, printers, etc. The Leningrad Rehabilitation Center Polytechnical School was located at 20 Berezovaya Alleya in the city of Pavlovsk, a suburb of Leningrad.

It was financed by funding from the All-Russian Society of the Deaf.

Iosif Geilman became the center's director and remained in that capacity for the next twenty years until his retirement.