A 12-year-old Jewish boy from Tasmania will travel 10,700 miles to attend a best friend’s Bar Mitzvah in Nottingham following a successful fundraiser. With no Jewish day schools nearby, Sholom Gordon, 12, of Launceston, Tasmania, joined an online school where he met other Jewish pupils across the globe three years ago.
As an English speaker unfamiliar with the teaching language Hebrew, he soon forged a close friendship with Yehuda Lent, a 12-year-old from Lenton, Nottingham, who has helped him with translation. Eager to attend Yehuda’s Bar Mitzvah in the upcoming January, Sholom soon realised the return flight tickets to Nottingham were unaffordable and turned to GoFundMe on November 14.
The fundraiser saw an outpouring of support as £5,000 was raised from 127 donations in three days, exceeding the goal by £660. Reflecting on the single-handed effort, Sholom said: “I thought I would get a little for the fundraiser; the next morning I woke up, I was 70 per cent towards my goal.
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“As I noticed I got the entire amount of money needed to go (on the trip), I jumped for joy and am very happy.” He added he was grateful to all the donors who made the trip possible and to Yehuda for helping him integrate into the class.
Bar Mitzvah is a significant ceremony marking a boy’s adulthood after his 13th birthday in Jewish culture. Despite the success, Rochel Gordon, who is Sholom’s mother and the co-director of a Jewish organisation in Tasmania, was initially hesitant about the idea.
She said: “Sholom really wanted to do the fundraiser, but I didn't feel comfortable making a public display over my son wanting to make a trip.” The 34-year-old is, however, now “pleased” with the benefits it has brought on her son amid a “miserable” year, which she said included the death of her father and several months of displacement.
She added: “Sholom felt like his friends are having their Bar Mitzvah, and he is missing out a lot – he was at a low point. I was pretty shocked (with the amount raised), but it was more the words of support from people messaging me: they feel that I am brave to allow him to do it and he deserves it.”
Unlike most pupils, Sholom attends school from 6pm to 12am as it was run out of Israel . Donors were also seen leaving messages of support such as “hatzlacha”, the Hebrew equivalent of “good luck”, on the GoFundMe page.
Having supported several classmates get through language barriers over the years, Yehuda said: “When I joined earlier, I also didn't know any Hebrew. So, I know how they feel like not really understanding what's happening when everyone's chatting."
Yehuda said he was excited to welcome Sholom and his family for a one-week stay, before adding: “Sholom and I had a class play and he was very good at that – he was funny and energetic.” Brocha Lent, Yehuda’s 36-year-old mother, said: “It is quite sad that they cannot hang out together like normal children get to.
“Therefore, it is so beautiful that he did not let it stop him. The fundraiser is incredible; Sholom will get far in life if this is what he could do at 12-years-old.”
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