On June 4, Hithadshut in Holon brought together 1,900 thirteen-year-old boys and girls at what may soon be given Guinness World Records recognition as the largest Bar Mitzvah ceremony in the world. Hithadshut, which initiated the event, is a city-wide program in Holon for pluralistic Jewish education, established by Panim for Jewish Renaissance and the Legacy Heritage Fund. The highlight of the event was a performance by celebrated artist Kobi Oz, who has been touring Israel with his latest production, Mizmorei Nevuchim (Psalms for the Perplexed), songs he wrote and set to music, which celebrate Jewish heritage and stress tolerance and unity among Jews. “Yehuda Halevi (the medieval Hebrew poet) would surely have been a rapper today,” he told his young audience.

Hithadshut  director, Lea Wohl-Segal, noted that “the ceremony involved the entire Bar Mitzvah age population of Holon’s junior high schools, who came to celebrate their Bar Mitzvahs together. This rite of passage event is an exciting and moving milestone, and every Jewish child should be able to experience it, not just the festivities around it but also its Jewish content and meaning. Thirteen is the age when a youngster’s adult personality is formed and what could be more appropriate for teaching Jewish identity than the Bar Mitzvah.”

At the ceremony, three teenagers read the essays they had written about the meaning of Bar Mitzvah. They talked about taking on new responsibilities, and the changes they were experiencing while moving from the status of being children to that of adults in the community.

The Hithadshut program, which has been operating for three years in Holon, has introduced an innovative approach to Jewish identity education and created a city-wide model, which other cities have expressed interest in adopting for themselves.  

• שבעים פנים לתורה