His name means my light, and to the community of people who love him, he is that.
He prays with such intensity and spirit, and with such frequency and concentration and joy, that some call him "the little rebbe," or rabbi.
He has Down syndrome.
Even so, shortly after his 13th birthday, Lior Liebling did what many young Jewish boys could not do - lead an intense, three-hour coming-of-age service.
FOR THE RECORD - CLEARING THE RECORD, PUBLISHED MAY 25, 2004, FOLLOWS: The Inquirer yesterday incorrectly reported that Mordechai Liebling was the longtime director of the Jewish Reform Federation. From 1986 through 1998, Liebling was executive director of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation.
It is no wonder, then, that Lior's bar mitzvah was one of the most joyous days Congregation Mishkan Shalom has ever seen. In a way, the Mount Airy boy had prepared for May 15 his whole life.
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Mordechai Liebling first noticed his son's gift for davening - praying - when the boy was perhaps 3. Even at that age, Lior would bow and sway, an enthusiast in a prayer shawl that friends had hand-made for him.
He would wake up and ask, "Is it Shabbas?," so hopeful that each day would be the Jewish sabbath.
Lior was the third of four children born to Liebling, a prominent rabbi and for years the director of the Jewish Reform Foundation, and Rabbi Devora Bartnoff. The boy's spirituality surprised even his learned parents.
Bartnoff died of breast cancer when Lior was 6. Yoni, the second child, was 10 at the time.
"I was completely lost," Yoni recalls of his mother's death in 1997. "But soon after, I got a huge hug from Lior and realized that things weren't going to be so bad with this guy by my side."
Lior has that effect on people. Ilana Trachtman picked up on it right away.
A New York producer and filmmaker, she met the Lieblings at a prayer retreat last year and was struck by this loud, off-key, completely absorbed voice praying with her.
She met with Liebling and Lynne Iser, Lior's adored stepmother, who had been looking for someone to tell the boy's story on film. Everyone agreed Trachtman was the person to do it.
"I didn't make a conscious decision," she said. "I just ended up doing this. I'm maxing out my credit cards. My apartment has become a production office."
The film will be called Praying With Lior. She still needs financing, but Trachtman is confident that it will fall into place.
Mishkan Shalom, the family's Manayunk synagogue, made a rare exception to allow filming during Shabbat morning service, and the film crew has blended into the family over months of shooting.
