During the morning prayer service, Jews are told that one of the things God demands of us is “to open blind eyes.”
Davening Shacharit — praying the morning service — was one of the things that inspired Dr. Daniel Schainholz to enter the field of low-vision rehabilitation. Now the director of the Rose Resnick Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco, Schainholz sees his work as a way of giving sight to the blind.
“I know it’s a mitzvah,” says Schainholz, a San Francisco resident and member of Congregation Beth Sholom.
At the Lighthouse’s year-old Low Vision Center, Schainholz helps patients who are suffering from a number of visual impairments including glaucoma, diabetic eye disease and macular degeneration.
Macular degeneration is a condition that affects one out of every three seniors. The disorder causes a loss of central vision that makes reading nearly impossible.
“They get around, but reading mail, a menu or a street sign is terribly frustrating,” says Schainholz, who estimates that 90 percent of his patients are seniors.
Schainholz theorizes that the biblical figure Isaac may have had macular degeneration. “I often tell patients that despite his advanced age and failing eyesight, Isaac still had something important to give — his blessing.”
At the center, which provides assistance to people of all ages, Schainholz does not perform surgery. Rather, his focus is on using special equipment, strong magnifiers, telescopes or electronic devices so “they can read the newspaper, things we take for granted. People are quite surprised how much they can do for themselves.”
According to Schainholz, very few people know that there is help even when nothing can be done medically or surgically. “Many people end up suffering alone and unnecessarily.”
He adds, “Virtually always, I can help in some way. Many times, people are told that nothing can be done. It gives them peace of mind to know that everything has been tried.”
Schainholz’s goal is not to improve patients’ eyesight, but their functioning and ultimately their quality of life.
“In a typical eye examination you might wait half an hour for a 10-minute exam. Here, it’s the opposite. It’s much more in depth. I look at overlapping issues, their living situation, their motivation, their adaptation.
“Eyesight is not like a light switch,” he adds, explaining that it’s a matter of degree. “If there’s a single word that I give people, it’s hope.”
One of Schainholz’s patients, Milton Cohen, has been legally blind for six years (legal blindness is defined as 20/200 vision). At 93, he is still a practicing psychiatrist with a particular interest in hypnotherapy.
Before his vision loss, “I was driving a car and I felt very well for my particular time in life,” says Cohen, a resident of Rossmoor in Walnut Creek and a member of B’nai B’rith.
But then, he began to lose his sight. His initial reaction was “complete depression and anxiety.”
Schainholz, however, was able to help Cohen overcome his feelings.
During the initial examination, Cohen says, Schainholz “spent about three hours with me. He gave me encouragement that with better equipment I might be able to see even better.”
Cohen will soon receive his powerful magnifiers, which will attach to his glasses and enlarge the world 15 times.
As the son of Holocaust survivors, Schainholz says his work is partly an act of gratitude.
He grew up in a Conservative Jewish household in Teaneck, N.J., was educated at Columbia University and did his fellowship in low-vision rehabilitation at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.
“The work I do,” he says, “is a karmic repayment for being given existence.”