An 89-year-old man in Australia celebrated his Bar Mitzvah. Morris Wellins was orphaned as a young boy in his native Glasgow and was brought up by his sister, living in poverty with no formal Jewish education. At age 41 he moved with his wife and three children from Scotland to Melbourne. Morris, who had not been inside a synagogue for 50 years, was persuaded by local Rabbi Nir Gurevitch to celebrate his Bar Mitzvah at the Gold Coast Hebrew Congregation. “I thought it was time to do the right thing after all those years,” Morris said.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.