0

",,,,,•••• •

•

LONNY GOLDSMITH

Staff Writer

Against
The Odds

Bryan Diem is about to become
bar mitzvah after beating
a life-threatening disease.

10/31

1997

8

ryan Diem will become a bar
mitzvah on Nov. 29, exactly
seven years after he celebrated
the end of radiation treat-
ments for brain cancer.
"I started working with Bryan a little
over a year ago," said Annie Weiss, his
bar mitzvah tutor at Temple Israel. "I've
worked with kids who have attention
deficit disorder, but no one in Bryan's
condition in my 15 years of tutoring."
Bryan lives with his parents and
brother in Oak Park, and is a sixth-
grader at Norup Middle School in
Berkley. He studies with Weiss on
Thursdays after Hebrew school.
"Sometimes he can get frustrated,"
Weiss said. "It depends on his day at
school, or if he's tired, or if his hearing
aid is in ... It can make for a long day '
At his bar mitzvah, Bryan will do the
introductory part of the service, the

;

blessing over the tallit, the blessing
before and after the Torah, and will read
-
from the Torah.
"He's picked up the transliteration
well, and done beautifully on the Torah
portion," Weiss said. "Teaching him
successfully means repeating things. We
don't go on to new material until he
learns what we've been working on."
Rabbi Joshua Bennett will lead the
service at the bar mitzvah.
"Given the circumstances of his life,
it's a modern miracle he is here,"
Bennett said. "Everyone at the temple is
thrilled that he and his family will be
able to participate in this event.
"I sense that his case is one of the
more extreme that we've had to deal •
. with."
His mother, Donna, said their goal
was simply to get Bryan to his bar mitz-
vah.
The ordeal began when Bryan was
1/2 years old. Bryan had been suffering
from headaches, a problem Donna