Mother of a Child with Severe Disabilities: 'We Cried with Emotion. There Are Truly No Words to Thank for Such a Thing'
Dozens of high school students celebrated a bar mitzvah yesterday for children with severe intellectual disabilities. The event, featuring singers Yishai Lapidot, Chaim Yisrael, and Yaniv Ben Mashiach, exceeded expectations. 'This is the best preparation I could ask for my own bar mitzvah,' said one of the students attending the event.
- אבנר שאקי
- פורסם כ' תמוז התשע"ח
#VALUE!
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Great excitement was recorded at a special bar mitzvah event held yesterday. Yosef Chaim, Netanel, Eliyahu, Avraham, and Noam are children with severe developmental intellectual disabilities, who are unable to express their wishes in words. However, their faces and bodily movements clearly showed that they would certainly like to celebrate a "bar mitzvah" like everyone else.
Due to the intellectual and developmental disabilities from which the "Aleh" children suffer, they are treated at a rehabilitative center for people with disabilities, where it is believed that they too deserve to celebrate their bar mitzvah, just like everyone else. Thus, dozens of seventh and ninth-grade students came to celebrate with the five "Aleh" children as they entered the age of commandments.
Meanwhile, as one of the highlights of the event, singers Chaim Yisrael, Yishai Lapidot, and Yaniv Ben Mashiach exhilarated the celebrants, with students circling the special children in wheelchairs, singing and dancing with them, and delighting their families.
The mother of one of the bar mitzvah children said at the end of the event: "It's simply an event of angels. We are so excited to see our children celebrating a bar mitzvah. We cried with emotion. There are truly no words to thank for such a thing. We have come a very long way with our son over the years, but we never thought we would be able to celebrate a bar mitzvah for him."
Meir, one of the students present at the event, summarized: "I myself am going to celebrate my bar mitzvah next month, some of my friends have already celebrated their bar mitzvahs, and this is truly the best preparation I could have for mine. It's so special for me to come and celebrate with children with disabilities. They are like us, and they deserve to celebrate just like us. I feel that my joy at my bar mitzvah will be completely different after today's meeting. I understand much more now how good and happy my life is, and I thank Hashem for that."
