Sixty Deaf and Hearing-impaired Children Celebrate their Bar and Bat Mitzvah

May 2, 2007 (Pesach Sheini 5767)

Each year, our Bar/Bat Mitzvah Program assists deaf and hearing impaired children from all-over the country prepare for this important life-cycle event. Participants are required to prepare for the Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony. In order to do so, they attend a total of 24 hours of classes. These classes address the importance of community, giving to the community, and understanding the meaning and importance of prayer. The boys learn blessings for being called up to the Torah and the girls are taught the blessings for candle lighting and the commandment of taking challah.

The entirety of this experience, both the preparation for the Bar/Bat mitzvah ceremony and the event itself, allows the deaf youth and their parents to create and solidify a social network. At the Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony, the boys don tefillin and sign the blessings for being called up to the Torah, and the girls say the Shema in Sign language.

This year's ceremonies were held in the Yemin Moshe section of Jerusalem. Participating children and families represent the entire religious spectrum and come from all over the country. The ceremony was followed by ceremony a celebratory seudat mitzvah, and a presentation of a siddur and watch for every Bar and Bat Mitzvah, as well as the boys receiving their own pair of tefillin and the girls receiving Shabbat candlesticks.

The Bar/Bat Mitzvah Program is a project of CYIR's Judaic Heritage Program for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired. Join us in this wonderful simcha!  Click here to sponsor a Bar/Bat Mitzvah Participant.