Shliach Son’s Bar Mitzvah Includes Historic Milestone

In an emotional, historic double-simcha, Tzali Myers, son of Slovakia’s head shliach Rabbi Boruch Myers, celebrated his bar mitzva with a unique addition– the first hachnosas Sefer Torah in the country since before the Second World War.

The sefer Torah, along with a beautiful, hand-crafted aron kodesh, paroches and bima cover, was donated through the combined generosity of family and local sponsors, in memory of their loved ones.

The simcha began in a hotel event hall, where the sofer, Rabbi Shimon Shimonov from Vienna, Austria, gave donors and community members the honor of filling in the last letters of the Torah scroll. “Wow! Incredible! This is one of the most touching moments of my entire life!”, exclaimed Bratislava community president Dr. Tomas Stern, as he completed the writing of one of the letters.

The writing was followed by a joyous, police-escorted procession through the center of Bratislava, passing in front of the Presidents’ palace, gaining the attention of passers-by and media, and generating a special sense of pride and belonging amongst the local Jewish community.

“Walking in the street and singing with a Torah, this is something beautiful,” said Edita K., from Bratislava. “I remember my mother telling me how the Holocaust survivors quietly brought the Torah back into the shul after the war ended. They hugged it and cried, and walked with it in a case from the courtyard into the shul, but a singing procession like this? They could never have even imagined that this would be possible!” The procession continued with song and dance, with the bar mitzva bochur in front, to the door of the Chabad Educational center, where all joined for lively hakofos.

In addition to davening taking place in the city’s only shul where Rabbi Myers is the official rov, the Chabad Center shul, and its’ new Torah, will be used at times when the community shul is not open, and to accommodate the ever-growing numbers of tourists coming to the Center in need of an impromptu minyan.

After hakofos, all present returned to the event hall, where a beautiful bar mitzva seuda awaited them, with the traditional maamar, a catered dinner, and more song and dance lasting into the night.