Participants came mainly from the Broadway Medical Adult Care Center in Fair Lawn, where Errol Seltzer, a Temple Sholom member, is Administrator. Cantor Ronit Josephson had been teaching there and was ready to respond when an 83-year old client expressed a wish for the Bar Mitzvah experience of which his homeland had deprived him. Seltzer, Josephson, and Rabbi Neal Borovitz not only helped the old man to satisfy his wish, but also learned how avid and widespread among Seltzer's clients was their interest in the same goal.

The pictures on this page illustrate the climax of their striving under the guidance of Temple Sholom's spiritual leaders. Their special Shabbat service also culminated Temple Sholom's Synaplex program for 2003-4. According to Rabbi Borovitz, "There are hundreds of these families here...Jews who were denied access to Jewish life... . [Teaching] them how to connect to God...has become our new mission."               

___ Text Adapted From An Article By Jacob Berkman in The Jewish Standard Bar/Bat Mitzvah Guide for Summer 2004.