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Article: Retarded Adults Keep Faith With Jewish Tradition
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- June 29, 1987
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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Thelma Goldberg slowly walked up to the wooden pulpit, leaned
over the open Torah scrolls and began chanting a traditional Hebrew
hymn. When she finished, the silver-haired, bespectacled woman,
draped in a white and blue fringed prayer shawl, looked out at the
congregation and beamed.
At age 56, Thelma Goldberg, who is mentally retarded, had just
performed the Jewish bat mitzvah ritual.
Each week, thousands of Jewish youths perform the same
centuries-old rite. But when Goldberg and three of her colleagues
gathered around the Torah yesterday to read prayers and sing ancient
Hebrew blessings, it was the first time that a group of mentally
retarded adults had performed a joint bar/bat ...