I got a call about a Jewish woman, Claudia*, who was very ill. She was unaffiliated with any synagogue, so she didn’t have a rabbi visiting her. Of course, I was happy to visit her and do whatever I could to help.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to do for her except prepare for the end. Claudia had a little two-year old son, Greg*, and I promised her I’d make sure he had a bar mitzvah. She passed away a short while later, and I officiated her levaya. Greg’s father wasn’t Jewish, so while I tried to invite them to classes and events, he became more and more distant. When he remarried a Christian woman, that was the end of Greg’s Jewish education. They removed him from his Jewish preschool and enrolled him in the church kindergarten instead. They had him baptized, and raised him as a Christian.
Unfortunately, as time passed, I grew busy with so many other things, and my promise to Claudia completely slipped my mind. Thirty years later, I was giving a class for prison inmates, when one inmate introduced himself as Claudia’s brother-in-law. I immediately remembered my neglected promise, and asked him to give me Greg’s contact information.
When I told Greg who I was, he was so happy. “I’ve been waiting for your call!” he told me.
He told me about his childhood. When he was a boy, his grandfather had come for a visit. He noticed a cross in Greg’s wallet, and was taken aback. Quietly, he asked Greg to accompany him on a walk. He gently explained that Christianity and crosses were not for him. Greg listened respectfully, but it was hard to understand why he couldn’t embrace something he’d known his entire life.
When Greg was 14, he was standing on the church stage for his confirmation. The priest introduced him, mentioning his mother by name. When Greg heard his mother’s name, something came over him, and he knew it just wasn’t for him.
Greg always knew a rabbi had promised him a bar mitzvah. He tried finding me, with no luck. Since then, he’d been waiting for my call.
At the ripe age of 32, Greg learned how to read Hebrew, and celebrated his long-overdue bar mitzvah. Now, he’s a regular at our Chabad house, and his wife and children are very involved as well.
