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11- 7NAI MITZVAH

SUSAN WEINGARDEN

Special to The Jewish News

Mark, Cary and Danny Heller.

fRIPLE

The Hellers will have three times as
much naches at this weekend's
bar mitzvah ceremony

n Saturday, half of the
six-member Heller family
will put on their tallitot
and ascend the bimah at
Congregation B'nai David.
The other half of the family, parents
Carol and Bob and sister Rachel, will
sit in the front row of the congrega-
tion and kvell with pride as Cary,
Mark and Daniel Heller recite their
haftarah and become b'nai mitzvah.
It is not often that a haftarah is
split three ways. "This is the first set
of triplets to have a bar mitzvah in the
20 years that I've been here," says
Hershel Roth, shammes and bar mitz-
vah tutor at B'nai David. "It is a
novelty because it is different.
The Hellers began their bar mitz-
vah training at B'nai David in
September. "They are three different
students learning on three different
levels," says Roth. "Usually I see them
one at a time."
Roth divided the haftarah into
three equal parts and let the boys
decide which part they wanted. "It is
an important decision?' Roth says.
"Since they will soon become men, I
let them chose the part they wanted?'
"I'm going first so I can get it over
with," Mark says. "I feel safer going
second;' Danny adds. "And I didn't
care," explains Cary.
While the bar mitzvah service is
traditional, the thought of making a
celebration that would please all
three boys put their mom, Carol, in a

state of perplexity. "I didn't know
what to do because they don't always
like the same thing?' she says. "So I
opened The Jewish News, called a
party planner and dropped it in her
lap. She found a common interest that
we can build around to satisfy all
three?'
The Hellers, who moved last year
from Oak Park to West Bloomfield,
had only planned on having two
children. Their daughter Rachel was
five when Carol was pregnant with
what she thought was her second
child. "I was not taking fertility
drugs," Carol explains. "There was no
history of multiple births in either
family.
"I was growing very large and the
doctor thought I was carrying more
than one. There was no ultrasound
and they did not x-ray pregnant
women back then. Finally, in my
seventh month, they took an X-ray
and said they would call with the
results?'
"When we walked in the house
the phone was ringing?' recalls Bob,
a Social Security representative for
the federal government. "The doctor
said 'Are you sitting down? It's at
least three and there may be another
one hiding! I walked calmly into the
bedroom where Carol was and then I
started laughing hysterically."
"We were all hysterical,"
remembers Carol. "Both our families
couldn't stop laughing."
But the remainder of Carol's
pregnancy was no laughing matter.
"It was very difficult carrying them,"

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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