British Ambassador Tom Phillips welcomed 13 boys from Ohr Simcha, a Chabad-Lubavitch run orphanage and boarding school in central Israel, to his official residence last week for a mass Bar Mitzvah celebration with Minister of Welfare and Social Services Yitzhak Herzog in attendance.
Phillips first visited the Kfar Chabad school in 2006, meeting two brothers there who had arrived from the United Kingdom. Touched by the visit, he hosted the older brother’s Bar Mitzvah, and resolved to host the younger brother’s as well, this time with all of his classmates.
Speaking to the boys, the ambassador talked about some of the most valued qualities of an adult: courage, patience, a sense of humor, and compassion.
“The ability to reach out to and try and understand others and their point of view, for some people, comes naturally,” he said. “For others, it’s hard. And even if it’s a religious virtue, as it were, it’s just as necessary for diplomats [and] politicians.
“I hope all the Bar Mitzvah boys who are here tonight will go on to make successes of their lives.”
Israeli Welfare and Social Services Minister Yitzhak Herzog, right, and British Ambassador Tom Phillips present a gift to a Bar Mitzvah boy during a mass celebration at the ambassador’s official residence.
Rabbi Zeev Slavin, director of the Ohr Simcha orphanage and boarding school in Kfar Chabad, thanked Phillips for his hosting of the event, which followed official visits in 2006 and 2008.
A joyous procession led to a musical celebration at the ambassador’s residence.
Some 13 boys from the Chabad-Lubavitch run orphanage and boarding school celebrated their Bar Mitzvahs.
Celebrants wore shirts that said in Hebrew: “I am also celebrating with the children of Ohr Simcha.”
British Ambassador Tom Phillips shares a word with some of the Bar Mitzvah boys.
The Feb. 8 ceremony lasted well into the night.
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