Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on June 30, 2017

Jewish families across South Florida who aren't affiliated with a synagogue have the opportunity to give their children a traditional bar or bat mitzvah through Temple Beth El of Hollywood's Accelerated Prep Program.

The inclusive APP is considered a no-strings attached course offered to Jewish families who do not want to join a synagogue but do want to have the bar or bat mitzvah for their child. This program is designed as a fast track one where teens learn to read Hebrew in order to read their Torah portion and lead the service.

Temple Beth El's Rabbi Allan Tuffs and Cantor Manny Silver tutor children one-on-one and custom tailor the program to fit each child's needs as individual classes are 30 minutes each week and can be taken through Skype or Facetime if needed. The families will also have the opportunity to have their child's service officiated by both Tuffs and Silver in the synagogue's sanctuary.

Tuffs said that since this program started almost two years ago, they've had close to 20 children from all over South Florida who have participated in it.

"What we want to do, and what we try to do, is to give these children an authentic, meaningful bar or bat mitzvah experience with the hope that this will be the beginning of a growing relationship with the Jewish tradition," Tuffs noted.

One family that has benefited from this program is the Rauh family from Sunrise. Sherry and Christian Rauh's 13-year-old son Julian recently had his bar mitzvah through the program. While Sherry is Jewish, Christian is not, so Julian was given a choice to have a traditional bar mitzvah, and he chose to do so. As the Rauhs are not members of a synagogue, Sherry noted that the program "was an absolute perfect fit for what we needed."

"It gave Julian the opportunity to learn Hebrew in less than a year and have a traditional bar mitzvah."

With the Rauhs living in Sunrise, traveling to the synagogue in Hollywood would've proven extremely time consuming for them especially with the rush hour traffic, so Julian did most of his bar mitzvah training with the cantor through Skype.

"I was a little bit apprehensive as to whether he could really learn Hebrew over Skype, but it actually turned out to be fantastic," Sherry said. "It worked perfectly well. He was able to use the books he had at home and recite all the lessons he was learning with the cantor via Skype and that was a huge help for us considering it would've been an hour to drive to the temple and back every week."

Julian enjoyed this experience.

"I never really studied Hebrew before, so it was a really great program. The cantor was really great. He really helped me and I learned what I needed to know in a year."

Julian said his bar mitzvah ceremony at the synagogue was "really great."

"I never really experienced anything like that before and it was a really awesome experience. Doing what I've been studying for a long time was really a satisfying feeling."

Sherry said regarding her son's bar mitzvah ceremony, "It was very much a traditional bar mitzvah but very welcoming to the parts of our family that are not Jewish and it exceeded my expectations."

Another local family that has used the program are the Sickers from North Miami. The Sickers were not members of any synagogue when their son Ethan studied through this program and had his bar mitzvah at Temple Beth El more than a year ago.

Ethan's mother Erin Sicker called it an "amazing" program.

"I recommend it totally," she said. "First of all, Cantor Manny is absolutely wonderful. We met with him and that was the end of that. Ethan absolutely connected with him. It was a wonderful, wonderful experience."

Silver said, "My goal is to make this a positive experience for the children and that they come out of this experience with a sense of pride of who they are and a sense of accomplishment. I would say we're very successful in that."

Visit templebethelhollywood.org/barbat-mitzvah-academy/ or call the synagogue at 954-920-8225 for more information.

See original here:

Synagogue offers bar/bat mitzvah program for unaffiliated families - Sun Sentinel

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