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A Personal Commitment

BAT MITZVAH:

Toby Kaplan, 52

WHEN:

Friday, May 29, 1998

WHERE:

Congregation Beit Kodesh,
Livonia

JULIE EDGAR
News Editor

A 52-year-old Southfield woman
confounds her friends and family
(again) by becoming bat mitzvah.

eople have always underesti-
mated Toby Kaplan.
They assume that because
she spent her early school
years in special education programs,
"Toby sets a high standard for the
she couldn't possibly be as accom-
rest of us," said Beit Kodesh Rabbi
plished as she is. Kaplan recalled tak-
Craig Allen, who recorded
irig a test over 30 years ago to
the cantorial sections of
see if she qualified for Social
Toby Kaplan
prayers for Kaplan so she
Security benefits. You
becomes a bat could practice at home. He
could've picked my mother
mitzvah this
and rebbetzin Diane Allen
off the floor," she laughed.
weekend.
tutored Kaplan for several
Results showed she was per-
months.
fectly able to work. (It was
"Toby is quite remarkable.
the special education that
Apparently, from early childhood,
allowed her to succeed, she noted.)
people said, 'You can't do this
Becoming bat mitzvah tonight at
because you have problems.' She'd
the age of 52 is just another milestone
say, 'Yes, I can.' She works full-time
for Kaplan, who will lead the entire
and she and her husband support
service at Congregation Beit Kodesh
themselves. Her enthusiasm for her
in Livonia.

yiddishkeit is quite amazing," said
the rebbetzin.
"Learning Hebrew didn't go so
great," Kaplan admitted, but the tapes
helped. "Some of it I'm probably
going to screw up on, but I'm not too
worried," she said. "One of my friends
will stand by to help me if I get into
trouble."
Kaplan's -d'var Torah will focus on
Shavuot, which begins Sunday, and
the story of Ruth, the first convert to
Judaism.
"We know Ruth said she'll go with
her people to better herself. I feel that
way, that I'm going to be Jewish and

help my people. If they want to cross
the water, I'll go with them. I'm doing
what Ruth undertook to become a
Jew," she explained.
Kaplan, a Southfield resident who
has worked in the food service area at
Providence Hospital for more than 20
years, decided to study for her bat
mitzvah after the leader of a job club
at Jewish Vocational Service told her
she'd done it.
"I decided if she could do it, I could
do it. It's something I wanted to do to
make me feel more like a Jew," she said.
Kaplan is not a member of Beit
Kodesh, but has friends who are, and
they encouraged her. She said she has
attended High Holiday services at
Downtown Synagogue.
Her husband, Barry, is proud of her
for her latest endeavor. But her moth-
er, she said, "probably feels I'm crazy
for doing it. She thinks I'm nuts.
That's her opinion, not mine." ❑

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