A very special and unique Canadian mission to Israel took place this week: 70 participants, including 13 Bar and Bat Mitzvah teens and their families, participated in the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto Bar-Bat Mitzvah Family Mission 2007. On a sunny day last week, each of the teens read from the Torah in a delightful Bar and Bat Mitzvah ceremony at the Southern Wall in the Old City.

In addition to celebrating the participants' Bnei Mitzvah, the mission, chaired by Dan Daviau and Karine Krieger, and Jeff and Lori Rosenthal, toured Israel with a distinct community-building and Tzedakah-oriented focus. Participants packed gift boxes for soldiers along with children from the Toronto Community Campus School in Kfar Gvirol; spent the afternoon with local youth in Kiryat Moshe, and visited Shaare Zedek Hospital, where Jeff Rosenthal, President of the Canadian Shaare Zedek Hospital Foundation, presented a generous donation to the director general, Professor Jonathan Halevy. The mission also met with Zeev Bielski, chairman of the executive of the Jewish Agency, and held a joint dinner event with a Keren HaYesod mission from Sydney, Australia.

The mission is closing this week in Eilat-Eilot, UJA's Federation's Partnership2000 region, where they are visiting UJA Federation partnership projects.