Four Generations Celebrate Bar Mitzvah at Levindale

Photos by Esky Cook

Article by Margie Pensak

It isn’t often that a nursing home gets to play host to a family simcha, but for Ezra Shcolnik there wasn’t a more perfect place to celebrate his bar mitzvah on Thursday, August 6, than in the chapel of the facility where his centegenerian maternal great-grandmother, Doris Kahn, resides--Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital.

As Ezra’s father, Richard, remarked, “Ezra has a deep connection to Judaism. We feel it’s important to foster that connection, so that Ezra can explore and realize his religious and spiritual depths. Having the bar mitzvah at Levindale not only made it possible for the matriarch of our family to attend, but it acted as an homage to her indomitable spirit.”

“We are grateful to Levindale for its willingness to open its doors to an important marker in the Jewish life cycle, albeit one that is atypical for Levindale’s ordinary focus,” added Ezra‘s mother, Caren. “We’re especially grateful to Rabbi Orkin for his kindness, patience, and enthusiasm about the idea of our son becoming a bar mitzvah in such a non-traditional setting.”

“This is really a family lifecycle simcha, because Ezra’s Aunt Michelle and Uncle Pedro got married here in Levindale, three years ago on Rosh Chodesh Elul, and now GG‘s great-grandson is being bar mitzvahed” noted Levindale’s Rabbi Jeffrey Orkin, prior to the ceremony. “It’s a really wonderful opportunity in a nursing home to have these life-cycle events.” Although other bar mitzvahs have taken place in Levindale, it was a first during Rabbi Orkin’s 14-year tenure.

It was Passover time when Ezra, whose family lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, expressed a desire to have his bar mitzvah at Levindale. They called Rabbi Orkin to start the process of making it happen. It was important to Ezra and his family that his great-grandmother, “GG”, as she is fondly called, could witness this milestone, together with his maternal grandparents, Stanley and Barbara Friedman, of Timonium. A host of relatives and close family friends received the meaningful invitation designed with his great aunt Susan’s picture of the wailing wall; the same picture that was used for his mother’s bas mitzvah invitation.

Not knowing how to read Hebrew did not deter Ezra. The young accomplished virtuoso and composer had already studied German, Latin, and Chinese, prior to entering his first year of violin study at the Colburn Music Academy in Los Angeles, last fall. Not only did he learn Hebrew and trup (the words of the Torah that are read with their accompanying musical cantillation notes) well enough in three months to recite the Hebrew blessing over the Torah, he chanted part of his Torah portion, Eikav, straight from the Torah scroll--no easy feat for even those who have studied Hebrew their entire life.

As Ezra said in his speech, his big day was even more meaningful because he was called up to the Torah wearing the tallis that his deceased maternal great-grandfather and namesake, Grandpa Walter Weikers, wore. “It shows the amazing power and beauty of passing things down from one generation to another,” shared Ezra. “In the same way, I used the yad that belonged to Uncle Saul, my great aunt Susan’s late husband, and I used the Kiddush cup that was used by Grandpa Stan on the day of his bar mitzvah, which is inscribed with both his initials and mine.”

Phyllis Betman, a close family friend who returned home to Baltimore briefly in the midst of her vacation, just to attend Ezra‘s bar mitzvah, remarked, “I think it’s marvelous that considering the lifestyle Ezra has led, that it was important to him that he wanted to be bar mitzvahed.”

Prior to attending Colburn, a world-class performing arts school in L.A., Ezra studied music composition at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. In December, 2013, a composition created by Ezra was premiered by the Performance Santa Fe Orchestra. The composition, March and Fugue, was actually written for his great-grandmother, and Ezra played a piano version of the piece in honor of GG’s 99th birthday.

It was quite obvious, from listening to Ezra’s speech, that he inherited GG’s ‘gratitude attitude’. Ezra opened his speech with, “I can’t tell you how blessed I feel to be here right now with all of you--it truly feels G-d-given….I ran into hard times trying to write my thoughts down on paper. But sometimes, when I took a break from writing, I would look out at the sky, at the land, at nature, and I would suddenly be reminded of how awe-inspiring the world is. I could see the love that G-d lavished on the world, giving us all of the things we need in our life.”

Ezra‘s just as grateful grandparents, Stanley and Barbara, recalled, “Ezra Wyatt has always been a great source of pride to us from the moment we saw him being born. He has linked many generations. Boruch Hashem for all of these blessings.”

Being able to witness the bar mitzvah of her sole great-grandson was such an emotional experience for the usually loquacious, spunky former Yiddish theatre actress. All GG could manage to say, with a broad smile spread across her lips, was, “I’m just overwhelmed with joy!”