Margot and Warren
Teens
APAR TMEN TS
A Wheelchair
Bar Mitzvah
A Conservative synagogue in Israel helps six
disabled teens become Jewish adults.
Rehovot, Israel
NECHEMIAH MEYERS
Israel Correspondent
ne often sees a mother cry
with joy when her son has his
bar mitzvah, but rarely have
people seen so tearful a bar-
mitzvah mother as Shoshana, whose
son Shlomo recently was called to the
Torah at Rehovot's Masorti
(Conservative) Synagogue. Because
Shlomo, an undersized boy with twist-
ed limbs, has a severe case of cerebral
palsy; Shoshana never expected that he
would take part in such a ceremony.
When he did, her happiness knew
no bounds.
He wasn't alone that day. Entering
Judaic adulthood with him were five
other youngsters. Like Shlomo, they
attend the Herzfeld School for
Children with Cerebral Palsy, located
in Holon, near Tel Aviv. Herzfeld is
one of 21 institutions for physically
and/or mentally handicapped chil-
dren in Israel that have students pre-
pared by rabbis and other Masorti
educators to become b'nai mitzvah.
Once a week the kids learn about
the traditional modes of Jewish
behavior, as well as become acquaint-
ed with ritual objects like Torah
scrolls, kippot, tallitot, kiddush cups
and tefillin. When they're ready, the
students take part in a bar mitzvah
ceremony; albeit a truncated one.
Thirty to 40 percent of the chil-
dren in this program are relatively
new immigrants from Russia or
Ethiopia, and having a bar mitzvah
not only helps them to defy their
physical handicaps, but also to assert
that they are now Israelis.
Yigor, for example, arrived here with
his parents from Moscow just three
years ago. He's confined to a wheel-
chair, unable to speak and with no
more than limited use of his hands.
But Yigor managed to express himself
during the ceremony thanks to symbols
on a communication board. Just before
the Torah portion of the week was
0
One bat mitzvah
was so inspired
that she now
plays music for
cancer patients.
read, he pointed to one arrow, causing
the appropriate blessing to be heard
from a tape recording on his wheel-
chair. Then, when the chanting was
completed, he pointed to another
arrow, causing the blessing traditionally
made after the reading of the Torah to
be heard. Yigor couldn't actually say
anything himself, but he roared like a
lion when the ceremony concluded.
Ofra, another recent celebrant, was
born in Sudan when her parents were
on the way here from Ethiopia. She
now lives in Jerusalem at the Alyn
Woldenberg Family Orthopedic
Hospital and Rehabilitation Center for
Physically Handicapped Children. She
breathes through a thick plastic tube
embedded in her neck at one end and
her back at the other. She moves about
in an electrically-propelled wheelchair.
So though it wasn't easy for Ofra, she
learned all the prayers.
Speaking at her bat mitzvah, Ofra
mentioned that she now understands
the Jewish concept of one individual
being responsible for another. Because
of that, she now goes to play music
for cancer patients.
Much the same message came from
Rabbi Yosef Kleiner, who presided over
the b'nai mitzvah ceremony. Quoting
from the Torah, he noted that even the
priests in the Temple had limitations as
to what they could do.
"That is true for the rest of us as
well," he said. "But whatever our lim-
itations, there is much we can all con-
tribute to improving the world in
which we live." r1
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Detroit Jewish News
7/9
1999
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