Never too late
IT should have been a day of unbridled joy for Maurice Minski and his family as they celebrated his bar mitzvah. But instead it turned into a day of horror and tragedy as the Nazis invaded his hometown and took his parents away. The 13-year-old bar mitzvah boy never saw or heard from them again.
IT should have been a day of unbridled joy for Maurice Minski and his family as they celebrated his bar mitzvah. But instead it turned into a day of horror and tragedy as the Nazis invaded his hometown and took his parents away. The 13-year-old bar mitzvah boy never saw or heard from them again.
Last Sunday, however, some seven decades later, Maurice finally had the opportunity to mark his coming of age and revel in the occasion.
He was one of 75 aged-care residents, who had never been able to properly celebrate their bar or bat mitzvahs, given that chance at last at a special ceremony hosted by Jewish Care Victoria.
Believed to be the first of its kind in Australia, more than 300 people attended the event at Gary Smorgon House to celebrate with their loved ones, who were deprived of the traditional rite of passage by the Holocaust, war or the repressive regimes they lived under.
Mark Joel, Jewish Care’s general manager – community, said it was a beautiful ceremony, although “a bit bittersweet” for many of the participants.
“When they cast their minds back to the time they were [bnei] mitzvah, they were traumatic times,” he said.
Yet by the same token, he noted, being surrounded by the families they defied the odds to create, made the celebration particularly meaningful.
“I think what was incredible was to have four generations in some instances of families there … When you see people come together to celebrate this sort of occasion, it’s just absolutely heartwarming,” Joel said.
The idea for the ceremony was conceived when Rabbi Yisroel Kohn, one of the rabbis at Jewish Care, was speaking to some of the residents and realised they had never had a bar mitzvah.
The festivities included a synagogue service in which the men were called up to the Torah and the women were blessed, followed by singing, dancing, and a brunch. Participants ranged in age from their 80s to 90s, with the oldest participant being 99.
Adel Justin, 92, addressed the crowd about her tumultuous childhood in Europe, where her family had to escape Poland during World War II.
“This was a story of rebirth and regeneration for her,” Joel explained. “She was able to celebrate something she never thought she would be able to celebrate.”
Another “bat mitzvah girl” Eva Suss, aged 96, said she “really enjoyed” the day.
“I am proud that my children and grandchildren had their own bar and bat mitzvahs, and it is too bad that my own father could not be at the event on Sunday, as he would have been very proud of me,” she said.
PHOEBE ROTH
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