Ukrainian Jewish teens mark bar and bat mitzvahs in a quiet Carpathian retreat

Dozens of Jewish boys and girls from across war-hit Ukraine spent last weekend in the scenic Carpathian Mountains for a special bar and bat mitzvah Shabbaton organized by Chabad emissaries through the youth group Energ'o. The retreat was designed to give teenagers a rare break from sirens, tension and shelling in cities across the country, including Kyiv, Dnipro and Kremenchuk.

One participant was a teenage girl from Kyiv whose home was directly damaged in one of the recent missile strikes on the capital. For her and the others, the mountain setting offered a first chance to process months of trauma in a calm and safe atmosphere, far from explosions and air-raid alerts. The main ceremony took place early in the gathering, with separate bar and bat mitzvah events.

As part of the celebration, the boys received elegant sets of tefillin and the girls received silver Shabbat candlesticks. The project and personal guidance were led by Rabbi Moshe Weber, Rabbi Shlomo Salamon of Kremenchuk, and Rabbi Simcha Labenartz of Kyiv, together with a larger team of counselors and counselors who ran educational and social activities throughout the weekend.

Weber said the teens enjoyed a fully detached and restful experience. “We studied together, celebrated together, held farbrengens together, and danced together,” he said. He added that food and logistics were provided generously, that a large festive meal was a highlight, and that greetings from rabbinic and Chabad representatives in Ukraine were shown to the group. Some teens could not attend because of the security situation, so they joined by Zoom. “They were physically far, but very close in heart,” Weber said.