Thirteen-year-old Baruch Begun of Moscow, whose father, losef, has been exiled to Siberia, was bar mitzvahed in absentia at the Lake Success Jewish Center on Long Island yesterday. His coming of age was celebrated by an-estimated 70.000 attending parallel Sabbath services at synagogues in the Greater New York area, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Young Begun had a stand-in, 14-year-old Too Rothschild of New Hyde Park, L. I., who recited the Torah portion and blessings in what was for him a second bar mitzvah. The prayer shawl and Bible used will be delivered to Baruch by a tourist next month according to members of the congregation.
The proxy service was arranged by Rabbi Seymour Baumrind of the Lake Success synagogue after it was learned that Baruch was not permitted to undergo confirmation at the Moscow synagogue Baumrind had met the Began family during a visit to the Soviet Union in 1977. losef Begun a scientist, was sentenced last year to four years in exile on charges of “hooliganism” because he taught Hebrew and had applied for a visa to leave the Soviet Union.
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