Henry Baker ’13 Celebrates his Bar Mitzvah With 15 Adopted Ethiopian “Twins”
Times of BRUNSWICK
“It doesn’t seem like a lot when you think about it,” said Henry Baker, an 8th grader at Brunswick Middle School, “but achieving my bar mitzvah meant a lot to me. I’m now a young man and have more responsibility, especially in terms of helping others.”
In order to achieve this important rite of passage, every bar mitzvah boy (or bat mitzvah girl) is required to do a charitable project. Some boys do it in their own community. Others, like Henry, did it in the Ancient Near East. When Henry and his family heard about an organization called the The Forgotten People Fund (FPF.org.il), they were immediately inspired to help a community of Ethiopian Jews in Netanya, a coastal city north of Tel Aviv. With an overhead of only 1 percent, FPF raises funds to help pay for necessities such as school fees and books, summer camp, clothing, scholarships, dental and special medication costs, vitamins, bus cards, food vouchers, utility bills, and taxes. One of the organization’s most significant programs is providing bar and bat mitzvah experiences for Ethiopian families who would otherwise be unable to afford them. Through FPF, the Bakers connected with the principal of the Shapira Middle School, where 40 percent of the student body is Ethiopian. Fifteen soon-to-be bar mitzvah boys were identified, and the mitzvah (Hebrew term that means “to express any act of human kindness”) began.
The Bakers hired a rabbi who teaches at the school to help prepare each boy for his special coming of age ceremony. They also provided a dedicated computer so that Henry and the boys could talk (via Skype) every Sunday. David Niznazri, a computer teacher was the interpreter in facilitating the boys’ communication leading up to their mutual big day. “The boys were really shy at first,” Henry said. “They come from struggling families and sometimes have 17 people in one apartment. “At school, the boys needed supplies and didn’t even have desks. They spent two to three hours a day devoted to studying Hebrew, and that’s why it was such a shame that they wouldn’t be able to afford having a bar mitzvah. It made me want to reach out to them because it was like we were twin brothers.” Along with arranging a rabbi, and an interpreter, the Baker family gave each boy a prayer shawl and a prayer book, along with funds for a new white shirt, black pants, and shoes. “When I finally went to Israel to meet Avraham, Itzhak, Yossef, Shemon, Sheron, Avihai, Tomer, Izhak oriel, Itzhak baruch,