This Month's Bar/Bat Mitzvah Story

The victims of the March 6, 2008 Mercaz Harav Yeshiva massacre: Top row: Avraham David Moses (age 16), Ro'i Roth (18), Neria Cohen (15), Yonatan Yitzhak Eldar (16); Bottom row: Yochai Lifshitz (18); Segev Peniel Avihail (15), Yehonadav Haim Hirschfeld (19), Doron Meherete (26).

There are many ways to respond to sad news. When Mitch Cooper heard about a terror attack at a school in Israel, he responded by changing his plans.

Mercaz Harav is a yeshiva, a school for Jewish religious study, and one of the oldest in Israel. It was founded by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, Israel’s first chief rabbi, in 1924. It was already famous, but made the headlines recently for a horrible reason. On March 6, 2008, a terrorist attacked the school, killing eight students, mostly between 15 and 18 years old, and wounding ten more.

Mitch was in class at the Hillel Torah North Suburban Day School in Skokie when a teacher came in and told his class the news. Everyone stopped classes and came together to cry and pray.

Mitch had already planned to have his bar mitzvah in Jerusalem, at the Kotel (Western Wall) in the summer of 2008. But when he heard the news about the attack, he changed his plans.

That night, he asked his parents if, instead, he could have his bar mitzvah at Mercaz Harav. They said they would ask the yeshiva, which said yes. His parents told Mitch that the rabbi they spoke to there was so moved, he started crying, too.

So this summer, Mitch is going to Israel with his friends and family to visit the yeshiva and celebrate his bar mitzvah there. He will lead services, read from the Torah and make a speech.
He is a little nervous about all this, he admits, because he will be reading Torah in front of 300 other students!

But Mitch is doing more than having his bar mitzvah reception at Mercaz Harav. He is also donating half the money he receives as gifts to the families whose children were killed in the attack.
 
When someone hears sad news, they might not know what to say. But Mitch knows that sometimes it’s not what is said, but just being there for someone else that matters.

Editor’s Note:
JUF responded to the tragedy at Mercaz Harav by sending $15,000 in immediate assistance. Some of that was spent on replacing books and parts of the rooms that were damaged by bullets, and on improvements to security. And more was spent helping the families and friends of the victims heal through programs funded by JUF’s Israel Emergency Campaign.