Called to the Torah

June 19, 2009
Contributed by: Phyllis Pollak

[Blog Editor's note: For two years, five adult learners have been studying with AEMT's cantor and rabbis in order to become B'nei Mitzvah. They led services and were called to the Torah on Shabbat Korach, June 19, 2009. Phyllis Pollak is 2nd from the left in the photo.]

I am becoming a Bat Mitzvah because I want to be an adult Jewish woman in the full sense of this phrase; I want to be called to the bimah to recite the blessings before and after the Torah reading. I love being Jewish, and this is the next step in the development of my religious self.

My Hebrew name is Meiri Chai, which is “Mayer Lives.” My Mother’s name was Gertrude Mayer Grippi; her paternal grandfather, Gustave Mayer, was Jewish. His parents came here from Baden, Germany, during the 1890’s. They are buried in the Beth El Cemetery in Brooklyn. Due to intermarriage, my Judaic heritage was lost to me for a long time. I have returned to my Jewish roots and reclaimed my heritage.

On my Bat Mitzvah, I will be wearing the tallit of Ben Steinhauer. Ben is the father of a dear friend of mine, Eva Steinhauer Rosenberg. Ben was a Holocaust survivor. He endured 32 months of internment in concentration camps: Buna (a sub-camp of Auschwitz), Mauthausen, and Ebensee. I feel deeply honored to wear his tallit. Judaism lives!