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THE MOST MOVING MOMENT
WCBS Radio, NewsRadio 880, February 3, 2006
Last night over dinner some of the men were asked, "What was the most moving
event of the mission for you?" One said the Holocaust Museum, another the
Western Wall.
For me it was "Dudi", David Ozeri-Tal's Bar Mitzvah in a small synagogue
not far from Jerusalem's Old City.
Dudi didn't read from the Torah, and could barely get out one of the basic prayers.
But for me, it was the most moving synagogue service I've ever attended.
Dudi is mentally retarded, but he celebrated this Jewish rite of passage for 13-year-old
boys and 12-year-old girls through the Masorti Bar/Bat Mitzvah program for Special
Children.
Each year, the program insures hundreds of mentally and physically challenged
children get to do what able-bodied children take for granted says National Director,
Zivah Nativ, On their special day, says Nativ, the child "has an expression
on their face of King for one day."
Bar Mitzvah Boy David Ozeri-Tal of Jerusalem becomes a bar mitzvah
with family looking on.
t's a dream come true too for the parents, who know they will never see their
child marry or have children of their own. David's mother, Naema, had extra
tissues on hand for the ceremony -- and I should have, too.
Afterwards, one of the special education teachers told me she had a mother come
up to her after her disabled son became a Bar Mitzvah. The beaming mother said
it was the first time anyone had ever congratulated her on her son.
The program is run by the New York based Masorti Foundation for Conservative
Judaism in Israel, and is funded in part through UJA donations.
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