Conservative synagogue celebrates Bar Mitzvahs for autistic teens

[Phx_Dem]

It looked like just another ordinary Bar Mitzvah: Boys wearing their talit (praying shawl) and tefillin (phylacteries), reading the weekly Torah portion and singing “Adon Olam” (“Lord of the World”).

But this was a different Bar Mitzvah, unique and moving to tears, as five boys and one girl, all of them autistic, fought for their dream – and won.

Their 'coming of age' path was not an easy one. The Orthodox community poses a Halachic problem in calling up autistics to read from the Torah, since Jewish law says "one who is deaf, one who is young and one who is a simpleton shall be exempt from ordinance."

A source close to the celebrators said Monday that “in most cases, the Orthodox community doesn’t allow invalids to read from the Torah, but we refused to give up and joined the conservative community.”

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3565445,00.html