JDC Revives Bar/Bat Mitzvah Tradition in Siberia

Second group Bar/Bat Mitzvah in two years to be held July 1

New York---Building on the success of last year's group Bar/Bat Mitzvah of 60 kids in Kabarovsk Russia, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee today announced that it is coordinating another group Bar Mitzvah in Siberia. On July 1, 70 boys and girls from six Siberian cities will be called to the Torah in the city of Novosibirsk. The Bar Mitzvah project has been spearheaded by JDC board member Elaine Berke and her daughter Susan Fogel, both of Los Angeles.

Since the fall of communism, open forms of Jewish expression have become more common in Russia, but according to JDC officials in Siberia this will be the biggest event for Siberian Jewry in 90 years. The children will represent Novosibirsk, Kemerovo, Novokuznetsk, Tomsk, Omsk and Barnual. The festivities will begin on June 30 with a concert and dance recital followed by a kabbalat Shabbat. More than, 200 people---participants, their families and community members and leaders from the six Jewish communities---are expected to attend the opening ceremonies.

The actual Bar Mitzvah will take place at the new JDC-supported Wilf Jewish Community Center, where participants will stand under an unfolded talit and recite the Torah blessings together and read verses from the Torah individually.

"Before the Revolution of 1917, the Bar/Bat Mitzvah celebration was a regular significant event in the life of each strong Siberian community," said Boris, director of JDC-Krasnoyarsk. "Now more 70 years after the revolution and 20 years after perestroika we are happy to revive this vital tradition."

Along with Fogel, Berke began to formulate plans for the project after attending a JDC board mission to Siberia several years ago. She has enlisted the help of the University of Judaism's Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, which has supplied rabbinical students to work with community educators in Siberia and coordinate weekly "distance learning" sessions for the participants. The sessions include Torah portions, text study and mini-seminars run by Hillel in Siberia. The two rabbinical students assisting with this year's Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Abe and Scott, will officiate the event.

"In the U.S., most affiliated Jewish boys and girls have Bar or Bat Mitzvah," Berke said. "I am thrilled to be able to help make this major experience possible for the Jews of Siberia who have been forbidden from openly expressing their spirituality for generations."