To celebrate the day he became a man, a Los Angeles 13-year-old donated a sizable chunk of his bar mitzvah gifts to help mend injured American war veterans and active duty soldiers.
The University of California Los Angeles' Operation Mend program recently accepted a $13,000 donation from Joshua Neidorf, following his Jewish rite of passage.
Neidorf was inspired to make the gift after his family signed up to be a local social support system for an Operation Mend care recipient, Army Sgt. Louis Dahlman.
Dahlman was injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2007, and now lives in eastern Texas.
During his travels to LA for a long series of jaw reconstruction surgeries, the Neidorfs have grown close to him through social visits.