Shalom CBA Members and Friends,

COVID-19 has affected us all in ways we couldn’t have guessed when this year started, but I want to tell you about Hannah Simkovic-Kitterman.

Hannah and I have been working together for a while now, and at the beginning of the year, the excitement was building for her to invite her family and friends, and fill the synagogue with people excited to welcome her into the Jewish community as a Bat Mitzvah, a “Daughter of the Commandments”. We had a date set, we had plans for what it would look like, and the party was being thought about.

And then COVID-19 happened.

At first, we decided to postpone it to late summer, in the hopes that things would normalize and we would be able to do it “right.” Unfortunately, things once again did not work out according to plan. Undaunted, but a little demoralized, we pressed on.

I personally can’t imagine what it is like to have any lifecycle event during this time, let alone one as important and central to a Jewish teenager’s life journey than a B’nei Mitzvah in a time where social distancing and Zoom meetings are a regrettable necessity.

It is with that in mind that I would like to invite you to Emily’s Bat Mitzvah on Zoom, which will take place on Saturday, August 15th @ 10:30am. I am personally sending an all-call to the community to join in to watch the service and her Torah reading. Even though we can’t come together in the synagogue, we can still come together virtually for this important event.

You can join the service with this link:

Erik Uriarte is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Hannah’s Bat Mitzvah
Time: Aug 15, 2020 10:30 AM Mountain Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

We will also be tentatively planning for an event next year, where we can gather for her to read Torah with a (safe) room full of people, and a real, honest-to-G-d party afterwards.

Respectfully,

Erik L Uriarte, MAHL
Student Rabbi and Director of Religious Programming
Congregation Beth Aaron – Billings, MT
Cell: (406) 413-5367