A Mazal Tov on Capitol Hill

By COLlive reporter

Rabbi Berel Levertov, Director of the Santa Fe Jewish Center – Chabad in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is currently in Washington, DC attending the AIPAC Policy Conference.

In between speeches during the largest annual pro-Israel gathering in the United States, he made his rounds helping Jewish men do a Mitzvah and put on Tefillin.

Later, Rabbi Levertov joined AIPAC’s Southwest Synagogue Initiative Director Rebecca Gerbert and others for a face to face with Members of Congress about the US-Israel relationship.

They met and spoke with Representative Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico’s 1st congressional district, and Representative Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico’s 3rd congressional district, who is Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

At Luján’s office, Rabbi Levertov met a Jewish man named Brian who told him that he was not able to study for his Bar Mitzvah because his parents were not able to afford tuition. Unfortunately, the temple wouldn’t waive the fees.

Rabbi Levertov offered to hold a Bar Mitzvah then and there on Capitol Hill. Brian was helped with putting on Tefillin for the first time in his life and recite “Shema Yisroel…”

All that was left for the congressional staffers and visitors to say was “Mazal Tov!”