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Friday November 2, 2007

Toronto boy raises the ‘bar’ in mitzvah

by sheri shefa
canadian jewish news

When most boys think about their bar mitzvah, they hope their friends will have a good time at the party and pray they won’t make a mistake during their aliyah l’Torah.

But Zachary Baruch wanted to make sure his bar mitzvah would be more meaningful to his family and the people in his community.

On Sept. 16, four days after his 13th birthday and about a month before his bar mitzvah celebration, Baruch hosted a dinner for 40 aboriginal youths at a homeless shelter in Toronto.

The eighth-grader thought of the idea with his father, Ron, who serves on the board of directors of Ve’ahavta — the Canadian Jewish Humanitarian and Relief Committee, which assists the needy both locally and nationally.

“We came up with the idea of how can we parallel our festive celebration by helping others,” said Ron Baruch, adding that his son wanted to sponsor a dinner with the gifts he’ll get from his bar mitzvah.

Baruch consulted with the people at Ve’ahavta and learned that Tumivut, an aboriginal youth shelter, was looking for funding for a dinner promised to the kids, about 40 youth, in the summer. “They didn’t have funding for it,” Baruch said.

Zachary decided this was a good opportunity to help.

“When I heard that they were promised a steak dinner and a party, and they couldn’t do it because they didn’t have enough funds, I felt really bad. And because I’ll be getting bar mitzvah money, I thought since I’m really fortunate, I should help them,” he said.

At the Jewish day school he previously attended, Zachary said, “I learned about tikkun olam and [that] you should also give back to the community and people that are needy. I thought that this would be a really good opportunity and it helps them a lot.” Not only would they have the dinner, he said before the event, but “they’re also going to have a DJ.”

Zachary and six or seven friends would run the party, preparing “loot bags” that included toiletries for the teens and planning some fun giveaways.

“It isn’t just a matter of funding but a matter of participating, and he and his friends are going to go that night on Sept. 16 and help out and serve and grill and participate,” Baruch said.

When Zachary emailed his friends to ask if anyone wanted to help, he got an enthusiastic response.

“One of my friends said he’d help right away, and he said that next year he wants to do something like that for high school, when you have to do community service.”

This isn’t the first time Zachary has participated in a project to help the needy.

“On a field trip last year, we went to a shelter and we helped out by handing out food and clothes and it felt, when someone enjoyed it, it felt really good inside that you’re helping someone less fortunate than you.”

Ron Baruch hopes that his son’s sponsorship of the dinner would encourage others to get involved.

“One of the important parts of this is that I want it to be contagious. I want people to know about it, and Zachary knows that. Hopefully, [his friends] will get the idea for their bar mitzvahs. For me, it is more about setting an example for others.”

His daughter, Rebecca, will have her bat mitzvah next May, and she, too, will be part of a project that will give back to the community.

“It is something we do as a family. Now, symbolically, he’ll become a man, and hopefully it’ll be something he’ll take on into adulthood.”

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