Putting the Mitzvah
in Bar Mitzvah
Rabbi Chanoch Yeres, director of the Deaf Programming
Division of International Young Israel Movement (IYIM), leads a
2013 Bar Mitzvah for 63 deaf and hard of hearing children.

Judy Lash Balint
E T U Judaica
S C O V E R Y O U R SI M C H A
Name: L Bala
I N J O Y . . .

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6 OCTOBER 29, 2015
BY JUDY LASH BALINT
JNS.ORG IT’S 9:30 A.M. ON A SUNNY MONDAY
morning in the Jewish Quarter of
Jerusalem’s Old City. Two large groups of
revelers almost collide in the alley leading
to the main square.

Both groups are accompanied by a clar-
inetist and a drummer belting out tradition-
al “simcha” tunes. In the middle of each
gathering is a 13-year-old boy dancing with
beaming grandmas and uncles under small
chupot as they make their way under the
stone arches from the Western Wall.

It’s the Israeli version of the Bar Mitz-
vah extravaganza, and it’s repeated every
Monday and Thursday (days when the
Torah is read) throughout the year. Boys
from all over the country get called up to
the Torah for the first time at the Kotel,
and then get danced up the steps to the
Jewish Quarter and on to a lavish break-
fast spread at one of the many restaurants
or halls dotting the area.

But not every Bar or Bat Mitzvah-age
teen in Israel is fortunate enough to have
that kind of experience. For the tens of
thousands of youths from dysfunctional
families who are cared for in residential
facilities all over the Jewish state, it’s often
Diaspora Jews who make the difference
between having no Bar/Bat Mitzvah at all,
or having a meaningful transition into
Jewish responsibility.

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