Bar/Bat Mitzvah Twinning Program
Your child’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah is a milestone in your family’s Jewish heritage, not only connecting your child to his/her past and roots but also committing him/her to shaping the future. Every parent hopes that their Bar/Bat Mitzvah child will develop into an adult filled with an understanding of his/her heritage, enlightened to his/her escalating responsibility to the wider community. Yad Vashem’s Twinning Program can help your family fulfill this pivotal moment by matching your Bar/Bat Mitzvah child with a child who perished in the Holocaust, forging an unforgettable bond between two identities and creating a bridge between the past and present.
A “Page of Testimony,” documenting the life of a Holocaust victim, links your Bar/Bat Mitzvah child with a Holocaust victim by either matching names, birthday, and/or country of origin. Alternatively, the child Holocaust victim may be someone who is of blood relation to your family. The Bar/Bat Mitzvah child undertakes the responsibility of remembering the life of the child with whom he/she is twinned.
Yad Vashem marks Bar/Bat Mitzvahs in a very special and meaningful manner. The Bar/Bat Mitzvah experience includes a specially designed, family-friendly guided tour, a twinning for the Bar/Bat Mitzvah, and a visit to the Children’s Memorial.
Bar/Bat Mitzvah Tours at Yad Vashem*
Yad Vashem has developed a special tour in the Holocaust History Museum to mark the occasion of a Bar/Bat Mitzvah. The tour focuses on the fate of children and teenagers, and on the challenges that faced the Jewish family during the Holocaust. At the end of the tour the Bar Mitzvah boy or Bat Mitzvah girl receives a special certificate commemorating a boy or girl their age whose memory they have undertaken to perpetuate.
Making your Bar/Bat Mitzvah more Meaningful in your Hometown
If you’re not planning to visit Israel in the near future you can still participate in the twinning program.
The Bar Mitzvah boy or Bat Mitzvah girl will be twinned with a child who did not have a chance to mark his or her own Bar/Bat mitzvah. He/she will receive a folder by registered mail containing the Page of Testimony of his/her “twin”, Pages of Testimony of the immediate family members as well as a study guide and a special certificate acknowledging participation in the twinning program.
The cost of a Hometown Bar/Bat Mitzvah Twinning Kit is $220. To participate in the twinning program in your hometown, please click here.
