Grandmother’s 6,902 Mile Trip

By COLlive reporter

How far would you travel for a simcha?

A 90-year-old Jewish woman took the 6,902 mile trip from Canada to India to attend the bris milah ceremony of her grandchild held in Bangalore.

Born in Iraq, the woman moved to India with her ​​family and settled in Calcutta. She later went to Bangalore, where she had her son and daughter. With time, she moved one to Australia and one to Canada.

Her son remained in India and became active in the local Jewish community. Among other endeavors, he maintains the Jewish cemetery in the city.

But the bris of his son was unique not only because his elderly mother made the long trip to attend.

The circumcision was the first held in the city in 59 years, noted Rabbi Tzvi Rivkin, Chabad-Lubavitch of Bangalore.

The Brit Yosef Yitzchak organization has provided the family with a mohel, Dr. Binyamin Raskin, who flew in from Israel for the joyous and momentous ceremony.

Dr. Raskin, we’re told, got back on a plane right afterwards, traveling to Russia where he performed another 3 brissim on a newborn and another 2 adults in St. Petersburg.