In June 2018, the Maskin and Stark families from Phoenix, Arizona, came to visit Yad Vashem to mark the Bat Mitzvah of Ava – a talented dancer, and fourth generation to Holocaust survivors. At the presentation of the certificate marking her "twinning" with Eva Kotzover from Germany, Ava Maskin chose to perform a special dance she created for the occasion together with choreographer Albert Blaise Katafi. Ava has since performed the dance in many places, winning awards in New York, Florida, Arizona and California.
The Maskins and Starks represent hundreds of families that take part every year in the Yad Vashem Bar/Bat Mitzvah Twinning Program. The young person and his/her family participate in a special tour of the Holocaust History Museum and the Yad Vashem Campus, which focuses on children and youth during the Holocaust. The tour emphasizes in particular the challenges faced by the Jewish family unit during WWII, and the meaning of the Bar/Bat Mitzvah in Judaism and during the Shoah. Within the Twinning Program, a search is made in advance of the visit in Yad Vashem's Online Database of Shoah Victims' Names to find a "twin" – a Jewish girl or boy murdered during the Holocaust, who shares a biographical element with the celebrant or his/her family, such as first name, family name, birthday or place of birth.
At the end of the tour, a respectful and sensitive ceremony is held, during which the celebrant is presented with a Twinning kit, which comprises a certificate confirming their participation in the program, historical materials connected to their "twin," and a study pamphlet. The Bar/Bat Mitzvah also takes it upon themselves to remember their "twin" as they leave their childhood behind to become a fully-fledged member of the Jewish community.
The Bar/Bat Mitzvah Twinning Program has been warmly received by the general public, and the demand for these special tours has risen year by year. Since 2017, Yad Vashem has also allowed families that cannot come to Israel physically to participate in the program. The kit is sent to wherever they are in the world, and the commemoration of Holocaust victims in the framework of Bar/Bat Mitzvah celebrations is conducted within the local community.
This is especially true today: as the Coronavirus pandemic still restricts international travel and Jewish parents the world over are seeking creative ways to celebrate their child's coming of age. The Wells family, from London, UK, decided to mark Aron's Bar Mitzvah with a "Zoom-style" venture, in which the young man was twinned by Yad Vashem with Aron Gotlib z"l, who was born in Radom, Poland in 1933, and was murdered with his mother at the age of nine. After the online ceremony, Aron's father Adam publicized the important occasion and Yad Vashem's Twinning project in a series of heartwarming tweets, calling it "A Tale of Two Arons."
"Aron Gotlib’s name and beautiful face do not deserve to be forgotten to history," wrote Adam. "He deserved to have his Bar Mitzvah and celebrate with his family, like millions of others. On ‘my’ Aron’s Bar Mitzvah we will celebrate on his behalf, too."
"Since 2014, over 1,000 young men and women have participated in the program, taking an active role in passing the torch of remembrance to the next generations," says Inbal Kviti Ben-Dov, Director of the Commemoration and Community Relations Division at Yad Vashem. "Over the years, Yad Vashem has received much correspondence from families that tell of the enormous influence the program has made on the Bar/Bat Mitzvah celebrant, and about the special and poignant ways the children continue to remember their 'twin.'"
During her Bat Mitzvah preparations in the summer of 2019, Ariella Gross from New York decided to take part in the Yad Vashem "Twinning" program. Due to her great interest in the project, she investigated the history of her family during the Holocaust, and found out that her grandmother had a cousin, Ester Wurman z"l, who was murdered during the Holocaust as a child. "That is her – she is my twin," explained Ariella.
"I want to give her the Bat Mitzvah she never had."
However, the commemoration of a "twin" who was related to her did not suffice, and, with the assistance of Yad Vashem's International Relations Department and the American Society for Yad Vashem, Ariella decided to embark upon a fundraising campaign to support Yad Vashem's efforts to teach children of her age group about the Shoah. "I wanted to raise money so that Yad Vashem can continue its amazing work teaching about the Holocaust around the world," she said.
"It is plain to see the Yad Vashem Twinning Program allows participants to take an active part in the memory of Holocaust victims, and make that memory relevant to their own lives as they strengthen their own Jewish identity. The Program also enables family members to be part of this collective memory, and to pass it on to other communities, as well as to deepen their own ties with Yad Vashem – which all contributes to continuation of the Jewish faith and culture."
Shaya Ben-Yehuda, Managing Director of the International Relations Division
This article originally appeared in the "Yad Vashem Jerusalem Magazine," volume 92.
