At the Kotel, Daniel Raykher, fifth from left, and his family join Shterney and Rabbi Mordechai Kanelsky, second and third from left; participating rabbis; and the boys whose b’nei mitzva Daniel helped sponsor.
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July 30, 2009
Thanks to a New Jersey teenager, 13 boys from Israel’s Russian immigrant community got to celebrate becoming bar mitzva in a way they could never have expected.
A year ago, Daniel Raykher of Teaneck approached Hillside-based Rabbi Mordechai Kanelsky for guidance in choosing a service project for his own bar mitzva.
Kanelsky is the executive director of Bris Avrohom in New Jersey, the Chabad organization catering to the needs of Russian immigrants. Daniel’s father, Greg, serves on the Bris Avrohom board, and the families know each other well.
Kanelsky, religious leader of Congregation Shomrei Torah Ohel Yosef Yitzchok in Hillside, said he was delighted when the youngster decided he would like to help sponsor b’nei mitzva celebrations for boys less fortunate than he.
Daniel “gave the money that was given to him as gifts, and his parents matched him dollar for dollar,” Kanelsky related. Bris Avrohom added its support, and other congregation families did too.
After the group bar mitzva ceremony, Daniel Raykher and his father, Greg, right, join Rabbi Zalman Gorelick of Be’er Sheva, left, and Rabbi Mordechai Kanelsky of Hillside.
They linked up with the Russian immigrant community in Israel, and, with the help of Be’er Sheva Chabad leader Rabbi Zalman Gorelik and other rabbis, 13 boys were chosen from areas that suffered during the conflict with Gaza earlier this year.
In addition to covering pre- and post-ceremony celebrations, the support from New Jersey provided to each bar mitzva boy and his family a gift, a prayer book, a ceremonial wine cup, a set of candlesticks, and prayer shawls for the fathers.
The Raykher family traveled to Israel for the joint celebration on July 3. Kanelsky and his wife, Shterney, missed the pre-ceremony festive dinner in Be’er Sheva, thanks to a lengthy airport delay, but landed just in time to get to Jerusalem for the early morning ceremony at the Kotel.
Kanelsky, despite the 48-hour travel saga he had endured, said he found the event “unbelievable.” Some of the boys were able to read their portions; others took part together, as their male relatives looked on with evident pride.
“It was too wonderful,” Kanelsky said, speaking a few days after his return.
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