Without a congregation to lead following the coronavirus outbreak, Dollard-des-Ormeaux Rabbi Leibel Fine wasn’t about to deny his eldest son, Menachem Mendel, his bar mitzvah celebration.
With social gatherings prohibited in an effort to stop COVID-19 from spreading, Fine, the rabbi at Chabad of Dollard, postponed his son’s celebration slightly more than a week ago. He had invited close to 300 people, many of whom were declining to attend.
Zumba on the balcony at a Blainville seniors’ residence
Instead, 13-year-old Menachem Mendel won’t be called to the Torah, as originally scheduled, this Saturday. Instead of a morning service inside the gym at Westpark Elementary School followed by a luncheon, festivities will occur in cyberspace. A virtual bar mitzvah will be held at 9 p.m. after the sun goes down and the Sabbath officially ends.
The Jewish coming of age ritual will be streamed via a Zoom meeting and broadcast live on YouTube.
“It helps that I’m technologically savvy,” said Fine, a father of four and the rabbi at Chabad of Dollard since 2006. “It helps that I have the know-how or at least know where to look. Everything’s difficult and nothing’s difficult. Everything can be done if you put your mind to it. Is it possible and is it something we want to do? Those were the first two steps. Then you make it happen.”
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The bar mitzvah will be streamed using multiple cameras. It will include video messages from Fine’s father — who founded the downtown Chabad house on Peel St. in 1980 — and his in-laws. The biggest technical hurdle, Fine said, was determining how to get an advanced link to a YouTube event.