'During my reading, I couldn’t see that many people because of the way the app works. Maybe five or six. But after the rabbi spoke, all my friends took themselves off mute and shouted 'mazel tov.' It was great.'
Photo-Illustration: Stevie Remsberg For the last 18 months, 13-year-old Joseph “Jojo” Hershkowitz, a student at Salanter Akiba Riverdale Academy in the Bronx, had been practicing for his bar mitzvah, set for Saturday, March 7. Then, on that Thursday, after a student’s parent was diagnosed with COVID-19, all students were placed in quarantine. For Jojo, that meant his bar-mitzvah service at Congregation Kehilath Jesherun on the Upper East Side and the party for 200 at Space 54 had to be canceled.
Rabbi Haskel Lookstein: There was no question of doing the bar mitzvah in person. There is a principle in Jewish law that the Law of the Land is the Law of the Land. The Health Department is the Law of the Land, as far as we’re concerned. Not to mention that saving lives is more important than virtually any religious requirement. It’s fundamental to Jewish ethical thought: Saving lives overrides every religious requirement.
Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, Kahilath Jeshurun: Every Sabbath there is a specific portion of the Torah that must be read. You can’t just change the date. Jojo’s portion dealt with the special clothing worn by priests in the tabernacle in the wilderness and with sacrifice. The next time he could read it would be in another 18 months.
Joseph Hershkowitz: There are two portions that are read, one on Thursday and another on the Sabbath. Karen Hershkowitz: Had I known it was the real thing, I would have sent the link to a ton of family and friends. We would have had much more than 250.
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