Many of the students in Youth Aliyah’s remedial junior high school program have been celebrating their bar/bat mitzvahs over the past month within the framework of the villages' annual "coming of age" celebrations.

At Kiryat Yearim 15 children celebrated their bar/bat mitzvah this year. The program was supported by the Jewish Federation of Rochester. Guest of honor at the festivities was recently installed Israel's Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar. The parents of the bar/bat mitzvah children came to stay overnight at the village and the following morning they traveled to the Kotel for the actual bar/bat mitzvah ceremony before touring the Western Wall tunnels. As a bar/bat mitzvah present from the Swiss Committee and other donors, the children were given a gift – the realization of a dream. One group traveled to Eilat and swam with the dolphins and another group flew over Israel.

At Ramat Hadassah Szold 36 children traveled to Jerusalem and the Kotel for their bar/bat mitzvah where the special guest of honor was Leah Reicin, the new Chair of Hadassah Youth Aliyah. In addition to Hadassah, Ramat Hadassah Szold also received support for the bar/bat mitzvah program from Salomon Cohen through Keren Hayesod Spain.

Thirty-two boys from Ben Yakir together with their parents celebrated their bar mitzvah this year at the village and subsequently traveled to Jerusalem to see the Kotel, and tour the Jewish Quarter and the Old City. The boys all received presents given by Hadassah WIZO Canada.

Tamuz 5763 - July 2003