Bar Mitzvah

Brian Chernoff's "bar mitzvah tree" is now most likely a Christmas tree. Chernoff, 24, said a neighbor telephoned him early yesterday to tell him that a 10-foot blue spruce on his front lawn in Melrose Park had been chopped down. Chernoff placed a value of about $400 on the tree, but said its sentimental value went far deeper. "It was planted about 12 years ago to commemorate my bar mitzvah," said Chernoff. "I know it's not in the spirit of Christmas. . . . This is just terrible that someone would do something like this.

Jewish boxing champion Yuri Foreman will defend his title at Yankee Stadium in June - unless a bar mitzvah gets in the way. The WBA junior middleweight champion would fight Miguel Cotto there June 5, promoter Bob Arum said, if the bar mitzvah plays ball. Arum said the Yankees "leased out some lounges for this bar mitzvah and part of the deal was for a half-hour or so, they could use the big screen in centerfield to show pictures and all that sort of stuff," Arum said. "Obviously you can't do that if there's fights going on. " The alternate date is June 12 at Madison Square Garden.

All Jews are responsible each for the other. . . . Do not separate yourself from the community. - From a banner hanging in the David G. Neuman Senior Center This occasion was very special. The tables in the gymnasium held floral centerpieces, with red, white and pink balloons stretching toward the ceiling. The celebrants were dressed to the hilt, the gentlemen in their best and the ladies parading in gowns and their finest jewelry. This was no ordinary weekday visit to the David G. Neuman Senior Center at 6600 Bustleton Ave. The event was formally designated as a dinner-dance marking the start of the bar mitzvah year of the center, a branch of the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Philadelphia.

His knees shook and his voice faltered once or twice, like any Jewish boy reciting blessings for the first time in the synagogue on the day of his bar mitzvah. But Joe Hill, born 83 years ago and baptized a Roman Catholic, was not any Jewish boy. A real Philadelphia Irishman if there ever was one, with a ruddy complexion, Hill married a Jewish girl 55 years ago, converting to her faith a few months later. Yesterday, with much family fanfare, he finally observed his coming of age. "Today," he said with a smile, "I am a man. " Joe Hill did not have to have a bar mitzvah.

The bar mitzvah of the rabbi's son was a splendid affair: The entire congregation, about 725 families, was invited, along with 100 friends and relatives. They helped themselves to a buffet of assorted hors d'oeuvres, salads, desserts and wines while an Israeli band entertained. Since all the members of the congregation were, in a sense, the rabbi's bosses, surely, he figured, this could be considered a tax deduction. Now, 11 years later, the sweet memories of that Sunday in June 1975 are tinged with bitterness for Rabbi Arnold Feldman.

At a time in life when many Jewish children are preparing for their bar mitzvahs, Stephen Michaels was mourning the death of his parents, killed in a plane crash in England. Although his parents were very active in their Highland Park, Ill., synagogue, they did not believe in religious rituals, so the developmentally disabled 12-year-old skipped the adolescent rite of passage. But Michaels grew into a man who lives a full and active life, despite some mental and, more recently, physical challenges.

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. It is no wonder, then, that Lior's bar mitzvah was one of the most joyous days Congregation Mishkan Shalom has ever seen.

In the morning after the massacre of Palestinians in a West Bank settlement of Israel, Ari Ben Freedman-Weiss had his bar mitzvah at Temple Adath Jeshurun in Elkins Park. Ari is our neighbor's son, their oldest child. He's a quiet, sweet boy who captured my heart the day he knocked on our door three years ago, shortly after we'd brought home our newly adopted daughter. He handed me a simple thoughtful gift - banner, printed out on his computer, that read "Welcome Mariah. " He has knocked at my door many times since, bearing Boy Scout bags to fill with canned goods for the poor or his sister's outgrown playclothes as hand- me-downs for Mariah.

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER About an hour into the lesson on Samson and the Philistines, the eighth- and ninth-grade boys talked about the power to fight anti-Semitism and how to stand up for themselves. "I had a situation where someone said, 'You're such a Jew,' " said Matthew Warner, 13, of West Chester. The eighth grader didn't just walk away. He responded, unafraid, telling the student to stop making derogatory remarks. The discussion about such exchanges came on a recent Sunday night at Kesher Israel Congregation in West Goshen Township.

It took Harvey Penson almost 80 years. Yesterday, surrounded by family and friends at the Albert A. Light Memorial Chapel at the Philadelphia Geriatric Center, he read a transliterated section of the Torah to become a bar mitzvah - a "son of the commandments. " The traditional rite of passage affirms the faith of young Jewish boys and girls and launches them toward adulthood. Penson turns 93 today. His daughter, Andrea Block, said he was never actively religious, but demonstrated his faith in his treatment of others.

IN THE 1800s and early 1900s, immigrants poured into seaport cities like Philadelphia, and "they all would settle around where they arrived," including Jews, Italians, Irish and other groups, said Rabbi Fred Kazan. "In Philadelphia, they tended to be in South Philadelphia. Side by side were a synagogue, church, bar and bathhouses," said Kazan, who grew up around 5th and Federal and is rabbi at Kesher Israel, in Society Hill. "As the decades passed, those who were able tended to move south," he said.

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER About an hour into the lesson on Samson and the Philistines, the eighth- and ninth-grade boys talked about the power to fight anti-Semitism and how to stand up for themselves. "I had a situation where someone said, 'You're such a Jew,' " said Matthew Warner, 13, of West Chester. The eighth grader didn't just walk away. He responded, unafraid, telling the student to stop making derogatory remarks. The discussion about such exchanges came on a recent Sunday night at Kesher Israel Congregation in West Goshen Township.

TLC's "Cake Boss," Buddy Valastro , brought a huge, jaw-dropping cake to the joint bar mitzvah of Cory and Lucas Fraiman on Saturday at Ice Works, in Aston. A camera crew was on hand for the event, at which Valastro ice skated with the boys, who are both in the neighborhood of 13 years old, and about a year-and-a-half apart. Their parents, Kara and Howard Fraiman , run the Ashley's Angels charity, which helps special-needs children. It's named after their late daughter, Ashley.

It is just after noon, and the restaurant is empty on what's supposed to be the busiest day of the year - Christmas. Owner Peter Fong isn't worried. Catering to synagogues the night before had nearly emptied the shelves at his Singapore Kosher Vegetarian Restaurant on Race Street near 10th in Chinatown, so Fong had to make a quick shopping trip to get ready for the crowd he knew would come. As Christians gather with family to mark the holy holiday, a Jewish tradition also plays out: going to the openings of new movies and eating at Chinese restaurants.

This tale of a fiddle, a young man, and his bond with a beloved Broadway show goes way back - to Babruysk, Russia, when pogroms were destroying Jewish villages more than 100 years ago - and then swings forward, all the way to today, to a roof in Center City. Well, a sort-of roof - one that floats nightly above the stage of the Walnut Street Theatre. Violinist Alexander Sovronsky sits atop it and plays a melody with a melancholy lilt in the first and final scenes of the Walnut's production of Fiddler on the Roof, which opened Wednesday after a week of previews.

Jewish boxing champion Yuri Foreman will defend his title at Yankee Stadium in June - unless a bar mitzvah gets in the way. The WBA junior middleweight champion would fight Miguel Cotto there June 5, promoter Bob Arum said, if the bar mitzvah plays ball. Arum said the Yankees "leased out some lounges for this bar mitzvah and part of the deal was for a half-hour or so, they could use the big screen in centerfield to show pictures and all that sort of stuff," Arum said. "Obviously you can't do that if there's fights going on. " The alternate date is June 12 at Madison Square Garden.

THERE ARE many measures of a man - family, race, religion, humanity, occupation, awards, and - dare I say it? - honor. Elsewhere, you can read accolades from those who knew the genial Hall of Famer Harry Kalas well. I knew him slightly, as an outgoing guy I'd sometimes encounter around town, and as someone whom I occasionally covered when writing the gossip column I ran for 17 years. Harry didn't make the column a lot. Yes, he was guaranteed to make it each March when it was his birthday.

CHRIS BROWN, who was arrested a week ago for allegedly beating up his (ex-)girlfriend, Rihanna, apologized yesterday, saying he was "sorry and saddened" by what happened. Hey, it only took him a week. Brown, 19, followed the celeb mea culpa handbook by invoking God (good) and the media (bad). "Words cannot begin to express how sorry and saddened I am over what transpired. I am seeking the counseling of my pastor, my mother and other loved ones and I am committed, with God's help, to emerging a better person," Brown said in a statement.

The new musical called 13 is every bit as sweet as your first kiss. And maybe even as memorable. It opened last night on a Broadway stage filled with teenagers - both the 13-member cast and the accompanying musicians range in age from 12 to 16. And by the time its 90 minutes pass, a child shall lead them has a fresh theatrical meaning. You couldn't ask for a more tightly constructed musical, this riff on teenage life in contemporary small-town America as told by a transplanted Manhattan boy. It's savvy and satisfying, with enough style to fully charm adults and speak eloquently to kids; my guess is, it'll be a big holiday ticket.