Devin Levi Cohen, son of Laurie and Gary Cohen and brother of Ethan, will celebrate his bar mitzvah with family and friends at Adas Israel Congregation on May 4. Devin is a seventh-grader at The Lab School of Washington and is involved in basketball, flag football, rock climbing, guitar and golf.
He is the grandson of Judy and Richard Cohen and Beth and Leonard Sloan. For his mitzvah project, recognizing the importance of education and books in his life, Devin chose to raise funds to build libraries for School the World, an organization with a mission to provide access to quality education to those living in the rural villages of Central America.
Julia Crausman, daughter of Jamie Crausman and Ginger Moss, is celebrating her bat mitzvah on May 18 at Adas Israel Congregation. She is a seventh grader at Alice Deal Middle School.
She began her Jewish education at the Gan HaYeled and is a current student in the Ma ’alot Program.
For her mitzvah project, Julia will work with local animal shelters and sanctuaries, as part of her desire to become an animal educator. She is excited to share this simchah with her brother, Adam, her grandparents and many family members and friends.
Jocelyn Rae Silverstein will become a bat mitzvah on June 1 at B’nai Israel Congregation in Rockville. She is a seventh grader at Lakelands Park Middle School.
Jocelyn is the daughter of Stephanie and Sam Silverstein, of Gaithersburg. She is the granddaughter of Sophie (z”l) and Sheldon Silverstein (z”l), and Annette and David Drazin (z”l).
For her bat mitzvah project, Jocelyn is raising awareness of widespread hunger in the Washington area. Her efforts include distributing food to those in need and raising funds for Manna Food Center.
Marcie and Scott Wertlieb, of Silver Spring, a proud to announce the Bat Mitzvah of their daughter Sela Rose on August 24th at Congregation Har Shalom. Sela is the sister of Zoe, granddaughter of Rita & Barry Wertlieb, Ron and Donna Oser.
Sela is a rising 8th grader at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School. She loves spending time with her friends at school and camp, travel with her family all over the world. She has explored France, Spain, Machu Pichu & the Galapogos Islands in South America.
Sela’s Bat Mitzvah project has been supporting Comfort Cases efforts to provide foster children with essential supplies for their new homes and schools.
Ellen and David Epstein of Bethesda are proud to announce the bar mitzvah of their son, Max Charles, on Oct. 12 at Congregation Beth El of Montgomery County. Max is the big brother of Abigail, and grandson of Selma and Herbert Chubin of Bethesda, and Rhoda and Michael Epstein of Great Neck, N.Y.
Max is a 7th grader at North Bethesda Middle School. He plays on a travel ice hockey team, and his bar mitzvah project is serving as a mentor for the Montgomery Cheetahs Special Hockey Club, which brings together kids of all ages with a developmental disability to teach the game of hockey.
Avery Adler will become a bat mitzvah on Oct. 19 at Temple B’nai Shalom in Fairfax Station. Avery is the daughter of Adina and Dave Adler and the granddaughter of Marlene and Bernie Adler and Doris and Joe Schyman. She is a seventh-grader at Lanier Middle School.
Avery keeps busy with softball, swimming, piano lessons and the joys of life. But in pursuit of her ambitions as a marine biologist, for her mitzvah project, Avery committed to keeping our marine environments clean by participating in several Chesapeake Bay Watershed clean-up days. In lieu of gifts, friends and family are encouraged to make charitable contributions to The Ocean Conservancy.
Avery Adler will become a bat mitzvah on Oct. 19 at Temple B’nai Shalom in Fairfax Station. Avery is the daughter of Adina and Dave Adler and the granddaughter of Marlene and Bernie Adler and Doris and Joe Schyman. She is a seventh-grader at Lanier Middle School.
Avery keeps busy with softball, swimming, piano lessons and the joys of life. But in pursuit of her ambitions as a marine biologist, for her mitzvah project, Avery committed to keeping our marine environments clean by participating in several Chesapeake Bay Watershed clean-up days. In lieu of gifts, friends and family are encouraged to make charitable contributions to The Ocean Conservancy.
Lily Weinberg, daughter of Stacey and Aaron Weinberg, will be called to the Torah as a bat mitzvah on Dec. 28 at B’nai Shalom of Olney.
Lily, a seventh grader at Rosa Parks Middle School, is an avid horseback rider and has competed in many shows in the area. She also enjoys riding her bike, running, crocheting and training her beloved dog, Hera.
For her mitzvah project, Lily crocheted animals and dolls for patients at the Children’s Inn at NIH.
Joining with Lily in her celebration will be her brothers, Jacob, a ninth grader at Sherwood High School, and Zach, a fifth grader at Olney Elementary, as well as her grandparents, Elaine Weinberg of Kissimmee, Fla., and Arnold and Susan Sherman of Sykesville, Md.
Charles David Korn Buckles will be called for the Torah as a bar mitzvah on March 14,2020 at Ohr Kodesh Congregation. Celebrating this mitzvah are Charlie’s parents Monique and Brad Buckles, Charlie’s maternal grandmother Maria Korn and Charlie’s Uncle Joe and Aunt Beth along with their children.
Bryna and Jonathan Dreyer of Austin, Texas (formerly of Germantown and Fairfax) are proud to announce the bar mitzvah of their son, Matthew Connor, on November 16th at Congregation Beth Israel in Austin, Texas. Matthew is the big brother of Rebecca, and the grandson of Marlene and Edward Chait of Rockville, and Lois and Neil Dreyer of Stamford, Connecticut.
Matthew is a 7th grader at Cedar Valley Middle School in Round Rock, Texas. He plays on his school’s football and basketball teams. For his mitzvah project, Matthew volunteered at the Round Rock Service Center distributing food to families in need.
Ethan Bleicher, second from left, and Aaron Pease shared their b’nai mitzvah on Feb. 8 at Temple Rodef Shalom. With them are Cantor Rachel Rhodes, left, and Rabbi Amy Schwartzman. Photo by Noah Bleicher
For a boy or girl turning 13, their bar or bat mitzvah is treated as a special day. But what happens if it’s someone else’s special day, too, and their family and friends have come to cheer them on?
It happens, to twins and triplets, who have grown up sharing the spotlight. But other teens find themselves sharing the bimah with another boy or girl. Families interviewed for this story said sharing the simchah can be just as fulfilling as a solo one.
Large congregations tend to double up on b’nai mitzvah. At Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, about 100 kids per year have a bar or bat mitzvah, so there are about 40 shared services and 10 individual services each year, said Cantor Michael Shochet.
“Sometimes it helps to have another family to lean on and share that moment on the bimah together,” Shochet said. “There’s the shared stress of it, the shared to do list.”
Temple Rodef Shalom member Alison Pease said her two sons each had a shared bar mitzvah, one in 2017 and the other this month. She said that although the preparation was individual, she enjoyed sharing the experience with the other families.
“I enjoyed sharing the moments with them, like the Friday night moments, and the kids being nervous before,” she said.
“The first time, we knew the family — the boys had been in kindergarten together. It felt very easy and sweet,” Pease said. “This time, it was a family I didn’t know until a year before. They encourage you to meet your [bar mitzvah] partner’s family. It was nice because we got to know a family we hadn’t known.”
The temple assign pairs three years ahead of time, has them meet a year before the event and assign tutors nine months before the event. All the kids with a bar or bat mitzvah in the same month do volunteer work together.
Pease said the parents of each partner discussed and decided on their roles during the service.
“We all have roles during Friday night services, so we decided … the moms were going to light the candles and the dads were going to open the ark,” she said. For the bar mitzvah service, she said, the mothers read from the Torah and the fathers held the scroll.
Rabbi Gary Pokras of Temple Beth Ami in Rockville said his synagogue sees what they call partnered b’nai mitzvah as a “very commonplace occurrence.”
He said the two teens and their families will meet about six months ahead of time, but otherwise their preparation is done individually.
“In the way that the service runs, in the way that we prepare the children, in the meaning and power and beauty of the moment, there really is not a difference between a single and a partnered service,” Pokras said.
Each child reads the same amount of Torah and haftarah, and the partners lead the service together — something Pokras said the synagogue’s Hebrew school students are already accustomed to doing.
Similarly, at Washington Hebrew Congregation, the ceremony is considered part of the child’s ongoing Jewish life, Rabbi Bruce Lustig.
“It’s not about performance, it’s really about the process of giving the children the tools to participate in Jewish life,” Lustig said. He added that the synagogue tries to create a balance between the communal aspect of a shared bar or bat mitzvah and each person’s individual experience.
“They’re lifted up as individuals, but they’re also a part of the fabric of the congregation.”
Washington Hebrew Congregation divides up the service each partner can participate equally. The cantor and rabbi who will be present at the service also work with each family.
“The opportunity that we get in spending that intimate time with that family is something that’s sacred,” Lustig said.
What starts as a shared bar or bat mitzvah can also become a lifelong friendship.
Said Lustig, “I have done weddings in which the bridesmaid was also [the bride’s] b’nai mitzvah partner.”
Harriet Vorona, 47, shared her bat mitzvah with her daughter Carolyn, 17. Vorona didn’t have a bat mitzvah as a teen, and when Carolyn started learning Hebrew, she said, “Mom, I really want to do my bat mitzvah, but I don’t want to do it alone.”
So they prepared together for six months. At the service at Congregation Adat Reyim in Springfield this past November, they chanted most of the blessings together, and each did the maftir, the concluding Torah reading, individually.
Harriet Vorona, left, shared her bat mitzvah with her daughter Carolyn, Photo courtesy Harriet Vorona
They each led parts of the Torah service, Vorona said, and both she and Carolyn gave divrei Torah.
“I knew if I was going to lead this entire thing I would just be stressed and I didn’t want to be stressed,” Vorona added. “I wanted to just enjoy the moment.”
She also said their tutor, Gary Lescowitz, split the haftarah, or reading from the Prophets, because he felt it was important that the maftir be done twice. It was also his idea to chant the blessings together, Verona said, adding,“It was just so special to stand up on the bimah next to my daughter and participate in this ritual that is generation to generation.”
Aviva Rachel Stern, daughter of Judith Goldman and Richard Stern, will celebrate her bat mitzvah with family and friends at Beth Sholom Congregation and Talmud Torah on March 7.
Aviva is a seventh grader at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School. Aviva is involved in Friendship Circle and participated in a b’nai mitzvah program with Sunflower Bakery. Aviva also enjoys Capital Camps and playing tennis.
Aviva is the granddaughter of the late Vivian and Herman Cohen and the late Ruth and Irving Stern, and is the beloved niece of Ramona Cohen and Margaret Stern.
Charles David Korn Buckles will celebrate his bar mitzvah at Ohr Kodesh Congregation on March 14. Charlie will be the second generation of his family to become a bar mitzvah at Ohr Kodesh. His family have been members for three generations.
Charlie is a seventh-grader at The Bullis School. He plays travel baseball with Diamond Skills 13U and also for The Bullis School. Charlie loves to travel and spend time at Rehoboth Beach.
Celebrating Charlie’s bar mitzvah will be his maternal grandmother, Maria Korn (David Korn z’l), and aunts, uncles, cousins and family friends who are traveling from Arizona, California, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Wyoming.
Shimma Wexler, right and his father, Aaron, seen this week. Photo courtesy of Aaron Wexler
While most area synagogues closed as a precaution against the coronavirus, the doors of the Jewish Rockville Outreach Center, or Jewish ROC, were open last Shabbat and welcomed 80 guests to Shimma Wexler’s bar mitzvah.
“The rabbi kept the synagogue open, and everyone came. I still had my bar
mitzvah, and I felt good,” said Shimma this week via Skype from the Wexlers’ home in Poolesville.
Rabbi Yaacov Benamou said it was imperative that his center remain open, despite the decisions by schools and houses of worship to close.
“I am of the opinion that we have to keep prayer services, and Torah reading around the clock, 365 days of the year,” he said. “The Torah should always be read, no matter what.”
Likewise, the Wexlers were undaunted by concern over the virus. “Two days before the bar mitzvah, we had some more cancellations, and we understood,” said Aaron Wexler, Shimma’s father. “But, we had people that were older who came and put themselves at risk. We knew how special it was to be together and celebrate the bar mitzvah and support Shimma.”
Benamou said the center is taking precautions against the virus. “Of course, we have to be extremely conscientious and careful of all the regulations and expectations of the health authorities. We are keeping mindful of the cleanliness of our synagogue.”
For Shimma’s bar mitzvah, “we hired extra people to serve the food at the synagogue. We insisted that people don’t shake hands, but we didn’t have to convince people about that,” the rabbi said.
According to Benamou, a crew cleans the Jewish ROC building every morning, and staff sterilizes the building throughout the day and continues wiping and sterilizing the building as ordered by the CDC. The synagogue is also limiting prayer services and classes to 10 people.
“I was nervous, but not scared about following through on my son’s bar mitzvah,” Wexler said. The coronavirus is God’s will, he added. “It is one of those things that we accept about God’s will. We just keep going. Hysteria is not going to solve this problem or make it better.”
Daniel Malkin is flanked by his parents, Yukiko and Joshua Malkin.
Some of the 60 Tikvat Israel members plus relatives tuned in to Daniel Malkin’s bar mitzvah.
Photos provided
“It was like a ‘M*A*S*H’ field hospital,” Gary Singer says, describing his daughter, Dalia’s, bat mitzvah on March 28.
“We built our own ark in the basement. We built a lectern, and we used the chuppah cover from our wedding as the tablecloth on the bimah.”
Months ago when the family scheduled the coming of age ceremony, they expected to celebrate in the sanctuary of Congregation Etz Hayim in Arlington. Then, almost overnight, a standard simchah became out of reach, as synagogues and institutions shut their doors and people retreated into self-isolation.
Families like the Singers, and synagogues like Etz Hayim, had to improvise. Should they postpone until a better time? Or, like late night television, should they go on with the show, but without a studio audience? Rabbis interviewed for this story say they’re doing some of both. The bottom line, they say, is for the bar or bat mitzvah to still be an event to remember. In a good way.
While many families at Congregation Etz Hayim are electing to postpone their child’s bar or bat mitzvah, families were also given the option to borrow a Torah and prayer books in order to conduct a ceremony in their home. Dalia Singer and her family elected to take the congregation up on this offer. Her bat mitzvah was facilitated by the now-ubiquitous video conferencing platform Zoom.
The Singers say more than 100 families “attended” Dalia’s bat mitzvah, and during the service, people took videos of themselves celebrating in the comfort of their own homes.
“We have videos of people throwing candy at their laptops,” Singer says.
They say the service went extremely well, and they are happy they persevered despite the unfortunate circumstances.
“There is so much sadness in the world right now, and this was a bit of a ray of light for a lot of people,” Dalia’s mother, Jeannie Singer, says.
Dalia still plans to read from the Torah at Etz Hayim once the synagogue allows her to, in something the family has dubbed “Bat Mitzvah 2.0.”
Rabbi Lia Bass says that once Virginia allows people to congregate in groups of greater than 10, Etz Hayim will welcome the children to chant their original Torah portions on Saturday afternoons with friends and family in attendance.
“What we try to do is teach the student how to read and not to be wedded to a certain Torah portion,” Bass says. “Yet, I know that they all create an emotional relationship with their Torah portions, and I can see from some of the students that they really have connected with their Torah portion and they still talk about it.”
Congregation Beth El of Montgomery County in Bethesda has also postponed bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies for the foreseeable future, but the large facility will allow the postponed services to take place apart from the regular Shabbat morning service.
Rabbi Greg Harris says families in his congregation are disappointed by the postponements, but that no one has objected.
“[The coronavirus situation] is completely out of our hands, so everyone has been really gracious,” Harris says.
At Adas Israel Congregation in the District, the clergy approached each bar and bat mitzvah family to see how the wanted to handle the situation, says Cantor Arianne Brown — reschedule, have the simchah on Zoom, or a hybrid of the two.
“Most families want to do something in person,” she says. “Most are choosing to reschedule.”
Faced with that possibility, the children worry, “Do I need to start all over again?” she says. “We don’t want to make them do that. Let’s let the children chant what they have prepared.”
For Daniel Malkin, like Dalia Singer, the bar mitzvah was going to go on. Sixteen days before his March 29 date at Tikvat Israel Congregation in Rockville, it was clear that things were not going to go according to plan.
“We quickly realized a normal bar mitzvah would not be feasible,” Joshua Malkin, Daniel’s father, told the Tikvat Israel Bulletin The family had expected about 40 out-of-town guests and planned to host a Kiddush luncheon at the synagogue and an evening event at the Twinbrook Community Center, according to the Bulletin.
On the Sunday after his scheduled date, Daniel stood in front of the camera in the family dining room and chanted his Torah portion in front of 60 synagogue members, “his grandmother in Japan and other relatives stranded by physical social distancing rules in San Diego, Atlanta, New York, New Jersey and Austin, Texas,” the Bulletin wrote. Rabbi Marc Israel and Cantor Rochelle Helzner led the service from their respective homes.
“Before logging off, congregants signaled their good wishes to Daniel with an outpouring of hand clapping symbols available on the Zoom screen,” the Bulletin wrote.
Congregation Etz Hayim’s Rabbi Bass said she knows many bar and bat mitzvah hopefuls are upset at the moment, but she encouraged them not to despair.
“Change is part of Judaism, and they are doing their part in the mitzvah of saving a soul. While that may seem like a nuisance right now, at one point in their lives, they will be able to say, ‘I had my bar or bat mitzvah during the pandemic,’” Bass says. “We all have tales to tell, and this will be theirs.”
Jeremy Matthew Silberglied (Yeremiah Menachem), son of Steve Silberglied and Gail Ravnitzky Silberglied, became a Bar Mitzvah at Bnai Israel Congregation on Aug. 29, 2020.
He is big brother to Jamie and Evan, and grandson of Karleen Heller, Jerry Ravnitzky, Marilyn Silberglied and Bob Silberglied (deceased). Jeremy is a 7th grader at Tilden Middle School.
For his mitzvah project, Jeremy is raising money for Sports Plus, an adaptive sports program. When he was younger, Jeremy participated in this program, which was instrumental in developing his athletic ability.
Jeremy now volunteers with the program, its first “graduate” to do so. Sports Plus (www.playsportsplus.org) is working to transition to an online format to continue serving kids with disabilities during the pandemic.
Shoshana Dalia Berger, daughter of Deborah Kornbluth Berger and Burman Berger, became a bat mitzvah on Sept. 12 at B’nai Israel Congregation. A seventh-grader at Tilden Middle School, Shoshana is the granddaughter of Dr. Ralph and Anita Kornbluth of Potomac, and Beatrice Berger and the late Bernard Berger of Potomac.
For her mitzvah project, Shoshana created Socializing for Suburban, in coordination with Suburban Hospital Foundation, to help provide personal protective equipment (PPE) to frontline hospital workers. In addition to raising funds, she coordinated with school administrators to form Zoom calls with other students where together they spent five hours making and delivering cards for hospital staff. She raised more than $1,100.
Evan Samuel Gorodetzky will celebrate his bar mitzvah on Oct. 25 at B’nai Israel Congregation. Evan is the son of Mark and Tamara Gorodetzky, grandson of Sharyn and Arthur Fuchs of Rockville, and Barbara and Dr. Charles Gorodetzky of Kansas City, Mo. Evan is a seventh grader at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School.
For his mitzvah project, he volunteers at Bikes for the World, an organization that donates used bikes to low-income people in developing countries. These donated bikes provide better transport for work, education and health care. Evan learned how to prepare bikes to be shipped in a shipping container, and he disassembled older bikes to donate their parts.
Maya Anh Booth will become a bat mitzvah on Jan. 30 at Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation, in Reston. Maya is the daughter of Emily Booth-Dornfeld and Stuart Dornfeld; and sister of Evan, Sophie and Josh. She is the granddaughter of Albert and Wendy Carton-Sirota, Sidney and Elka Booth, Doris Dornfeld, and Howard and Kathleen Dornfeld. Maya is a seventh-grader at Thoreau Middle School in Vienna.
For her mitzvah project, Maya raised funds and collected and delivered donated items for the Embry Rucker Community Shelter, operated by Cornerstones in Reston. She coordinated the collection of funds and purchase and delivery of items from dozens of donors, including herself, which totaled more than $1,000. She also raised awareness of the shelter’s needs in her community through discussion with family and friends, social media and written pleas on the shelter’s behalf. Maya plans to continue volunteering with Cornerstones. Maya enjoys ballet, riding her bike and attending Caps games.
Ayla Isabel Miller, daughter of Rachel Miller and Jason Miller, and sister of Julian Chase Miller, will become a bat mitzvah on Feb. 6, via Zoom and Temple Sinai. A seventh-grade honor student at Alice Deal Middle School, Ayla is the granddaughter of Polly and Manny Miller and Judy and Buddy Miller.
For her mitzvah project, Ayla has chosen to support Comfort Cares, an organization that benefits children entering the Foster Care System. She has raised more than $1,500 and plans to collect items, supplies and clothes in a donation drive.
