When Guma Aguiar, a 32 year-old American billionare, gave 13 year-old Arpyom Rusanov of Kharkov, Ukraine, a gift of tefillin last week, he pointed to an ironic revision in the century-old storyline of Jewish history.
“You are so fortunate that you can begin wearing tefillin at the right time, on your 13th birthday,” Aguiar told the bar mitzvah boy of this former communist city, who had a bris just three days prior. By contrast, the energy magnate who grew up in the U.S. didn’t get to don tefillin until he was 26.
Jewish Philanthropist Explores Chabad’s Russian Roots
When Guma Aguiar, a 32 year-old American billionare, gave 13 year-old Arpyom Rusanov of Kharkov, Ukraine, a gift of tefillin last week, he pointed to an ironic revision in the century-old storyline of Jewish history.
“You are so fortunate that you can begin wearing tefillin at the right time, on your 13th birthday,” Aguiar told the bar mitzvah boy of this former communist city, who had a bris just three days prior. By contrast, the energy magnate who grew up in the U.S. didn’t get to don tefillin until he was 26.