TEENS
GENERATI ONS
al Twinnin
A bar mitzvah at Young Israel of Southfield tomorrow pairs
an American Jewish youth and a recent Soviet emigre.
KAREN A. KATZ
Special to The Jewish News
T
omorrow morning,
when Joel Kirzner
and Dimitry Zelidman
are called to the Torah at
Young Israel of Southfield, a
new chapter in bar mitzvah
twinning will unfold.
Joel is from Southfield;
Dimitry is from Bobruysk,
about 100 miles from Minsk
in the Soviet Union. Joel is a
student at Hillel; Dimitry is
just learning what his Jewish
heritage is all about.
Their bar mitzvah celebra-
tion is the first shared simcha
of the Family-To-Family pro-
gram, which pairs new Soviet
Jewish immigrant families
with American Jewish
families.
Most teens who have twinn-
ed their bar mitzvah with
Soviet Jews are lucky if they
receive a reply to their letters
or discover that the twin has
been allowed to leave the
Soviet Union.
Joel, on the other hand, has
a warm and close relationship
with Dimitry, even though
they met just five months ago
and still have some difficulties
with the language barrier.
• Joel's parents, Dr. Jerry and
Judy Kirzner, explored the
possibility of adopting a Rus-
sian family with a boy of bar
mitzvah age long before the
Family-To-Family program
was started last fall. Joel's
sister, Jessica, twinned her
bat mitzvah 21/2 years ago.
She wrote three letters to her
Soviet twin, without reply,
and learned that her twin
received permission to leave
Russia about the time of the
bat mitzvah.
Dr. Kirzner, a psychologist,
was active in the Student
Struggle for Soviet Jewry,
and he and Jessica went to
the December 1987 Soviet
Jewry rally in Washington,
D.C.
He said their involvement
with Soviet Jewry is a
natural outgrowth of the
Holocaust's decimation of his
and his wife's families. His
father was the only surviving
member of his family. Judy's
mother was liberated from
Bergen-Belsen; her father
was in Buchenwald. "So we
are committed not just to
practice and the observance of
Judaism, but to Jewish sur-
vival as well," Jerry said.
The Zelidmans — Boris,
Rita, Dimitry and 4-year-old
Jerry — came to Detroit July
25, leaving the Soviet Union
just 2 1/2 months after seeking
permission. Boris is a plumb-
ing engineer, Rita a
kindergarten teacher who
recently became a licensed
manicurist. Boris said there
Most teens who
have twinned their
bar mitzvah with
Soviet Jews are
lucky if they
receive a reply to
their letters or
discover that the
twin has been
allowed to leave
the Soviet Union.
was much anti-Semitism in-
Bobruysk and Rita is concern-
ed for her family remaining
there.
Rita telephoned Dr. Kirzner
last fall after getting his
name from Jewish Family
Service. They spoke several
times by phone, and the
families planned their first
meeting to coincide with the
Family-lb-Family orientation
at the Jewish Community
Center last October. Rita's
cousin, Mila Meltzer, who has
lived here 10 years, served as
interpreter.
The Kirzners invited the
Zelidmans and other friends
to celebrate Sukkot — and the
Zelidmans saw a sukkah for
the first time. "In Russia, I lit
Shabbat candles, because I
saw my grandmother do it
when I was a little girl," Rita
said. However, they had no
other knowledge of Jewish
holidays and a bar mitzvah
was unheard of even though
many Jews lived in Bobruysk.
"There is no synagogue, no
Hebrew; they don't do Shab-
bos and the young people
don't know Yiddish," the
Zelidmans said.
The bar mitzvah invitation
for tomorrow's event includes
both boys' names, and this
verse from Parshat Terumah:
"And I will dwell among the
children of Israel and will not
forsake my people Israel.
Kings I, 6:13." Joel will read
the sedrah and haftora, and
Dimitry will be called up for
an aliyah.
"Boris will be celebrating
his bar mitzvah, also," Jerry
teased. "He is also being call-
ed up for his first aliyah. Joel
made tape of the brachot for
Boris and Dimitry, and so-
meone else wrote a Russian
transliteration for them to
practice."
Joel wil give a davar Torah
at a luncheon planned for
Sunday, to which guests of
both families have been in-
vited. Dimitry will also give
a short speech. Rabbi
Elimelech Goldberg of Young
Israel of Southfield has been
working with the boys and
recently taught Boris and
Dimitry how to lay tefillin.
Dimitry attends the
Lubavitch school at Avery
School in Oak Park, studying
with Rabbi and Mrs. Hershel
Zaklos. His little brother,
Jerry, is in the nursery school
at Yeshivath Beth Yehudah.
Many of the families at
Young Israel of Southfield are
involved in Family-To-Family
and more twinned celebra-
tions are planned, Rabbi
Goldberg said. "What we are
trying to do is make the
welcome as warm as possible.
I strongly feel these people
have been robbed of their
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
85