Colel Chabad celebrates Bar Mitzvahs for 125 orphans
In an emotional bar mitzva celebration that took place in Jerusalem this week, 125 boys who lost their fathers celebrated together in a series of events coordinated by the Colel Chabad organization. Originally scheduled to take place just before Passover, the annual events were forced to be rescheduled due to the war and restrictions on public gatherings. A similar bat mitzva event for girls was held earlier in the year.
The day-long celebration began at the Western Wall where the boys and their families were escorted with song and dance from the plaza down to the Kotel where they donned their new tefillin gifted to them by Colel Chabad and were called up to the Torah for their bar mitzva. Each of the boys had lost a parent due to tragic circumstances, due to illness, terror attacks, in war or in an accident.
Rabbi Sholom Duchman, Director of Colel Chabad, Israel’s longest-running social services organization since 1788, addressed the boys at a celebratory dinner and gala celebration held at Jerusalem’s Binyanei Hauma International Convention Center. “You should always remember that this is not simply a ‘coming of age’ experience that we typically think of for a bar mitzva,” Rabbi Duchman said. “You are carrying a message of faith, hope and that light can win out over darkness. I know that each of your parents are looking down from above with incredible pride and that their souls are in the room dancing along with all of us.”
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