当我们想到蝙蝠成年礼时，many of us think of opulent,over-the-top parties或者在华丽的犹太教堂里长期服役。this particularbat mitzvahtops any multimillion-dollar bash,by far.
6月15日，洛杉矶犹太人的家里挤满了几十人，a senior care center,看三位了不起的女士——伊迪丝·弗兰基，大屠杀幸存者；琳达·弗兰克斯，who grew up in a small town in Connecticut,远离任何犹太人社区；and Mildred Moccio,a recent convert to Judaism — do something truly incredible: They became蝙蝠成年礼.
在家人面前，friends,以及照顾者，the three women,70多岁及以上，wrapped themselves in atallit,recited Hebrew blessings,and shared their interpretation of the week's Torah portion.
拉比·卡伦·本德说：“我们不得不把人们拒之门外，因为这是一个拥挤的活动。”the Jewish Home's Skirball Director of Spiritual Life,是谁在这一独特的事件中领导了妇女们。
It was Frankie who helped inspire his momentous ceremony.最初来自特兰西瓦尼亚的一个小村庄，she survived eight different Nazi camps ("Uncle Hitler wanted us to travel," she says with her trademark wit) and spent decades involved in Holocaust education.But she had never been part religious community before moving to the Jewish Home.
弗兰基以前曾为她姐姐赞助过一个仪式。6岁时在集中营中丧生。拉比·本德向弗兰基建议，她有自己的孩子。bat mitzvah.
“我对她说，“当然！“谁不想参加他们的成人礼呢？”弗兰基回忆道。But there was one problem: She didn't remember anyHebrew.
然而，Frankie says that Bender told her,“别担心，那是我的工作！”
然后，拉比向家里的其他妇女发出邀请。Moccio and Frankes eagerly volunteered.
Frankie,Moccio and Frankes with Rabbi Bender (courtesy of the Los Angeles Jewish Home,史蒂夫·科恩摄）
For Moccio,this was her second involved process with Bender.Last fall,when Moccio,a new resident at the Jewish Home,was moved to hospice,她找了拉比。"I'm not afraid of dying," she confided to Bender,"but I'm afraid of dying a non-Jew."
Moccio's daughter had converted to Judaism,还有她的孙女，Payton,是犹太人。Moccio自己觉得犹太人。She had just never gotten around to converting."We arranged a conversion for her without the rigor of a regular conversion,because she was in hospice," Bender says.
所以，after a moving conversion — in which Moccio chose the same Hebrew name as her granddaughter's — it was time for Moccio to achieve another important Jewish milestone,这个bat mitzvah.
The ceremony was the culmination of five months of hard work."I could've made it easy," Bender says,"but I didn't."
She adds: "It could have been superficial,but they were serious students.我不断地把门槛提高到很高，他们不断地满足并超越它。他们真的领导了社区阅读《哈夫托拉》。
And it wasn't just an intellectual challenge — the three women also have health problems that made the task harder.但他们坚持，而且它得到了回报。
The bat mitzvah,Frankie told the crowd,是“向希特勒报仇的好方法”。
As for Frankes,she shared with the guests some sage marital advice inspired by the week's Torah portion.(The gist: Always talk through anything that bothers you,别让怨恨发泄。）她继续向她讲述仪式的意义，尤其是她父亲认为女孩不应该接受犹太教育。In fact,蝙蝠的成年礼是弗兰克斯第一次读《圣经》。
Frankie,Moccio and Frankes holding Torah scrolls (courtesy of the Los Angeles Jewish Home,史蒂夫·科恩的照片）
"Not having had the opportunity to do it when I was young," she told the crowd,"it means so much to me to have learned a portion of the Torah now."
And despite the lack of opulence in the ceremony — it took place in the lobby,which is serving as the Jewish Home's temporary synagogue,后面跟着一个simpleoneg of wine,challah,而Rugelach——女人们确实得到了一些非常棒的蝙蝠成年礼礼物。
"We were so excited,我们给他们买了很多东西，”本德说。"We got them a siddur,a kiddush cup with their names inscribed,a bat mitzvah certificate,and a photo of each of them with a talit and Torah scroll."
But the best gift was an idea from Bender's 15-year-old daughter,who volunteers at the home."She told me ‘Mom,you know how adults present stuff to kids at bat mitzvahs?You should have a kid present them with something.' And I said,‘How about you?' So I had these little Torahs made that were also inscribed.She presented to them and said,“代表我这一代，thank you for carrying the Torah in your generation.' It was really meaningful."
The other residents were so moved that,according to Bender,many of them came up to her,saying,“我想成为蝙蝠成年礼，too!"
我们搬家了，同样，and are grateful to these amazing women,who teach us that we can always continue to grow and achieve incredible feats at any age.Mazel tov!
图片来自洛杉矶犹太人之家，taken by Steven Cohn
