Minister Simhon
צילום: דודי ועקנין
Vietnam hosts its first ever Bar Mitzvah
Israeli embassy in Hanoi arranges ceremony for teen traveling with his family in Southeast Asia. Minister Simhon attends event, explains to local hosts that throwing candy at Bar Mitzvah boy is Jewish tradition
A Bar Mitzvah ceremony was held last Saturday in Vietnam, for the first time in the country's history.
The Bar Mitzvah boy, Omri Rafaeli, has been traveling with his family across Southeast Asia in the past nine months. When his 13th birthday was approaching, his father asked the Israeli embassy in Hanoi to help organize the ceremony.
In light of the difficulty to arrange a minyan (a quorum of ten men required for public prayer service according to Jewish law), the ambassador's deputy Nati Brooks suggested to hold the event at the same hotel where a delegation of Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon was staying.
In honor of the occasion, Brooks also brought a 150-year-old Torah scroll that belongs to him, to be used at the ceremony.
And so last Saturday Omri's family, the embassy staff, the minister and his entourage gathered at the hotel together with the members of the small local Jewish community, in order to celebrate the Bar Mitzvah.
"To hold a Bar Mitzvah in a country where there are no Jews…. is really exciting," Minister Simhon said. "Seeing the Torah scroll was especially moving for everyone.
"My Vietnamese hosts were a little surprised by what they saw, and didn't understand why we threw candy at the kid. We explained to them that this was a Jewish tradition," he added.
