Youth to dedicate Bar Mitzvah to the Righteous
BETHEL >> As the date nears for Noah Goldstein’s Bar Mitzvah, the Garnet Valley Middle School student is not only working on his studies for the Judaic rite of passage, but also on raising money to support the Righteous People who risked their own lives to save Jews from the Holocaust in Nazioccupied Europe.
Goldstein is working with the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous’ Bar/Bat Mitzvah Program to dedicate his June 26 Bar Mitzvah at Robinson’s Arch in Jerusalem to Wladyslawa Dudziak, who with her family hid Rozia Beiman in Kajetanowka, Poland during the Holocaust, disguising her as a cousin. The JFR is a nonprofit organization dedicated to identifying, honoring and supporting nonJews who rescued Jews during the Holocaust.
“I’ve always thought of the Righteous People as really amazing people,” said Goldstein. “When it came time to pick a project, it was a no-brainer.” Goldstein was paired Dudziak through the JFR’s “twinning” process for its Bar Mitzvah Program, pairing a young person with a rescuer for the opportunity to learn about and honor their selfless acts.
As Goldstein raises money to support Dudziak and her fellow rescuers, he is also making arrangements to be joined at his ceremony by Beiman and her family, who currently live in Israel. “My family and I thought going to Robinson Arch is the most holy way to have my Bar Mitzvah,” Goldstein said. “I feel it’s much more powerful than having the service and party in the U.S.”
Goldstein has found his Bar Mitzvah studies to be more powerful from his work with the JFR. Learning about the actions of those who risked their lives keep their Jewish friends and neighbors from deportation to the ghettos, and concentration and death camps instilled in him suppression of the Jewish religion and culture is still a living memory. “If I were to be studying in public, I would be taken away from my family and put in the concentration camps,” he said. “These great actions by the Righteous made it a lot better environment for Jews in the generations to come. Until you really put time and effort into supporting the Righteous People, you can’t understand the risk that they took to save the Jewish people.”
Goldstein has set a goal of $18,000 to raise in support of The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, as the number 18 signifies life in Judaism.
To contribute to Goldstein’s fundraising efforts and for information on his work with JFR and Dudziak’s work in Nazi-occupied Poland, visit www.gofundme.com/NoahHelpsJFR
For information on JFR, visit www.jfr.org. For information on the Dudzuiak family’s work in Nazi-occupied Poland, visit www. jfr.org/rescuer-stories/dudziak-family