at Workmen's
Circle
is a group
experience.

Glenn Triest

Jennifer Rose, left, Jineene Adler and Ben Werbling.

E n Ma s s e

SUSAN SALTER

Special to The Jewish News

H

old your songbooks
up!" urges principal
and music teacher
Esther Freeman,. A
handful of children
clustered on a playroom stage
hoist their blue-bound folders.
As accompanist Toma
Schwarts plays the opening
chords, the group launches in-
to wavering song.
It's a scene typical of any
Sunday school class, yet this is
no typical Sunday School. It's
the education center of
Workmen's Circle in Oak
Park. The children, singing in
Yiddish, are rehearsing their
appearance at the bar-and bat
mitzvah of the class' three
senior members, Ben Werb-
ling, 13, of Oak Park, and Ji-
neene Adler and Jennifer
Rose, both 12, of Huntington
Woods.
The b'nai mitzvah tradition

of Workmen's Circle, an
89-year-old Jewish cultural
organization, varies signifi-
cantly from the religious
ceremony most often associ-
ated with young men and
women. For one thing, no one
speaks Hebrew during the ser-
vice. Yiddish and English are
the languages of choice at
Workmen's Circle.
The ceremonies are always
held on a Friday in May, cor-
responding with the end of the
school year, regardless of
when the bar mitzvah subject
actually celebrates his birth-
day. And far from being alone
among his friends as at a
traditional bar mitzvah, the
Workmen's Circle celebrant
is joined by his classmates (ex-
cept for the youngest children,
deemed too fidgity to par-
ticipate) for a Yiddish
singalong marking the new
coming of age.
Ben became bar mitzvah
last Friday at the Workmen's

Circle center. Jineene and
Jennifer, friends since
"forever," decided at age 5 to
become bat mitzvah together.
As the Oak Park facility is too
small to accommodate the
guests of both families, the
girls will have their joint
ceremony at a local communi-
ty college tonight.
A workmen's Circle stu-
dent's preparation for the big
day is reminiscent of final-
exam time. Apart from learn-
ing remarks in Yiddish for his
or her guests, each teen
spends months researching
and writing a report to read
aloud at the bar mitzvah. The
subjects of their presentations
reflect the students' interests.
Ben, for example, reported
on the lbchnion — Israel In-
stitute of Technology. "At first
it was just about Jews and
technology," he says, "but then
my teacher told me about
Technion and I started work-
ing on that."

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

75

ENERATION

A bar mitzvah