By Tamar Runyan

Middle school students from Be'er Sheva, Israel, take part in a joint bar mitzvah organized by the city's Chabad-Lubavitch Center.

Be'er Sheva, Israel's ornate Pyramid Synagogue hosted a joint bar mitzvah ceremony for dozens of public school students, replete with a choral performance setting the tone.

Israeli Public School Students Celebrate Bar Mitzvahs as a Class

By Tamar Runyan

Middle school students from Be’er Sheva, Israel, take part in a joint bar mitzvah organized by the city’s Chabad-Lubavitch Center.

Be’er Sheva, Israel‘s ornate Pyramid Synagogue hosted a joint bar mitzvah ceremony for dozens of public school students, replete with a choral performance setting the tone.

After the celebration, which was organized by the city’s Chabad-Lubavitch Center, the students danced through the pews together.

Rabbi Zalman Gorelik, director of the Chabad House, explained that the synagogue was chosen for its unique design: The synagogue has four entrances, symbolizing the four open sides of biblical patriarch Abraham‘s tent. The location was fitting, he said, because a bar mitzvah is every Jewish boy’s birthright.

“The school wanted to do something special for these boys,” said Gorelik. “They donned tefillin and were called to the Torah for the first time.”

Article continued (Chabad.org News)