To the Power of Three
Continued from page 3
Being Jewish, to me, has changed my life around.”
Each of the Kemp children will recite a third of
the Haftorah that Saturday morning, April 25. For
Zoe, the highlight of the ceremony will be the sense
of accomplishment she expects to feel for sticking it
out over the months and years; for Madison, it’s the
feeling of having proven herself up to the task.

“Th ere’s also the aspect of having a Jewish com-
munity around us — that’s what makes you feel
more connected to God,” Zoe adds.

Th e seventh-graders at William Penn Middle
School have also signed on for a B’nai Mitzvah proj-
ect suggested by Beth El education director Karen
Lewis: collecting toiletries and writing letters to
Lone Soldiers, the young men and women from
throughout the world who travel to Israel to serve
in the Israel Defense Forces, leaving behind family,
friends and loved ones.

Th e Bucks County synagogue has a personal con-
nection to the project, Lewis notes: Elisa Mindlin,
who has taught at Beth El over the years, is the sister
of Michael Levin, a Lone Soldier who made aliyah
from Newtown in 2002, and who died in battle in
Lebanon in 2006.

But for now, Jonathan brings the talk back to the
upcoming festivities, which will feature a catered
luncheon donated by the synagogue.

“Standing in front of hundreds of people, I’m go-
ing to feel like I’m the last man on Earth. It’s amaz-
ing to know how I’ve worked my butt off for this,”
the newly minted teenager says, looking around at
the adults at his bedside to make sure he’s allowed to
use that word in polite company.

Rabbi Gruenwald nods. Laughs. Th en he notes
that the Kemps’ B’nai Mitzvah has blossomed into a
community-wide celebration, a feel-good event that
has touched many of the 318 families in the Conser-
vative congregation.

“Th ey’ve watched the kids grow up, and this is a
family that serves as a great inspiration to us. It re-
minds us what the important things in life are,” says
Gruenwald, whose tenure at the Bucks County syn-
agogue has included offi ciating at the B’nai Mitzvah
of another set of triplets two years ago.

“I think I’m leading America in terms of triplets
being Bar Mitzvahed,” the rabbi quips.

Even before Helena Kemp died, the family was
active in Beth El life, Lewis remembers; the children
were about 4 or 5 when she joined. Since then, ad-
ministrators and members of the congregation have
embraced Zoe, Madison and Jonathan as their own.

It was Lewis who helped design the Bar/Bat
Mitzvah invitation that has each of the triplet’s
smiling faces on the cover, which members of the
synagogue’s USY chapter stuff ed into envelopes at
3 a.m. on an early March Sunday morning during a
weekend sleepover.

It was his fellow students who sent Jonathan
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SIMCHAS “Rabbi,” the jaunty yellow Minion doll sporting a
turquoise kipah and the scrawled signatures of his
pals, and it was their parents who delivered home-
cooked meals to the home in the immediate after-
math of his surgery so his Mom-Mom could attend
to his other needs.

Many of the congregants will crowd into Beth
El’s sanctuary next month when the triplets mark
their formal passage into Jewish adulthood.

Brodsky, who acknowledges that her grasp of He-
brew isn’t stellar, will recite the Shehecheyanu prayer
three times — once for each celebrant — thanking
God for allowing them all to reach this day.

She’ll be thinking of her late husband that day,
and how pleased he’d be that another generation of
Jews had been successfully launched. She’ll be mar-
veling over how the congregation has so generously
adopted her family, much as she had adopted Zoe,
Madison and Jonathan.

But mostly, she says, she’ll be hoping that the
months of training provide a solid grounding as the
triplets chant on the bimah that morning.

“If they get through their Torah portions, I will
be the proudest person in that room,” Mary Brodsky
says quietly. “Th ey have been studying so hard — I
will be holding my breath the whole time.”
Fredda Sacharow is a frequent contributor to Special
Sections. SIX
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