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Friday October 27, 2006

B’nai Mitzvah Rememberance Wall links generations

Families looking to add meaning to their bar or bat mitzvah celebrations can become part of a permanent memorial to the 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust.

The recently dedicated B’nai Mitzvah Remembrance Wall, launched by the Jewish National Fund and the Levin family of St. Louis, Mo., in honor of Max Levin’s bar mitzvah, allows diaspora teens to forge a direct link between their lives and the lives of the young victims of the Holocaust.

Located in Jerusalem’s American Independence Park, the stone wall, designed to look like a Torah scroll, is embedded with glass tiles, each available for an $1,800 donation, bearing the name of the honoree, hometown and date of bar or bat mitzvah, along with the name and home country of a child who died in the Holocaust. Certificates also are sent to the honoree.

Just like Max Levin — who is now forever linked to Gyorgy Pal, bar mitzvahed in Hungary in 1936 — participants are linked to the past and the opportunity to continue the circle of life.

A summer trip to Israel with his parents, Bud and Judy, got the ball rolling. While at the Jewish National Fund-Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael offices in Jerusalem, Max perused several old Children’s Books of Honor used to record gifts from Germany, Poland, Russia and other European countries during the years 1901 to 1941.

Thousands were from families honoring their bar mitzvah boys during that period. (There weren’t many bat mitzvahs in those days, but there were recordings of girls who were honored on special occasions.) Most of the children on the pages of the books had been killed in the Holocaust, and Max realized that for many, the only evidence of their lives was in those books.

“I was looking for a project to dedicate for my bar mitzvah,” said Max, “and there they were. Thousands upon thousands of names. Some of them could even have been my long-lost relatives who died in the Holocaust.”

Of those young victims, very few records and few stories were left behind. “Almost all of their families had been killed and almost no trace of them ever has been found,” said Max. “I knew that I wanted my bar mitzvah project to deal with the destruction of the Holocaust and rebirth of the Jewish people in the Jewish homeland.”

He hopes that the children’s names “will inspire kids in America to remember our history,” and wants to raise money for JNF projects to help children in Israel.

Proceeds will go towards developing, maintaining and advancing JNF-KKL’s five Israel campsites, to be used by children for camping experiences.

Bud Levin is JNF’s national vice president for campaign. In planning Max’s March 2006 bar mitzvah at Congregation B’nai Amoona in St. Louis, “we knew we wanted to dedicate it to something. This idea was presented to us and we knew this was what we wanted to do.”

The bar mitzvah invitations included a description of the project and a note that Max would not accept any personal gifts; all gifts would go to building the Remembrance Wall. More than $10,000 was raised.

The Levins, who matched the funds, unveiled and dedicated the wall on June 22.

“This special place symbolizes what JNF stands for and what the Jewish people stand for all over the world,” said Ronald Lauder, president of JNF of America. “To honor those children who never experienced a full life is a wonderful tribute to them.” (Information is available at www.jnf.org or by calling (800) 542-TREE.)

“We wanted to create a way to memorialize those children who never had anyone say Kaddish for them,” said Bud Levin. “This wall will honor the past and look ahead to the future.”

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