Published: May 22nd, 2005

Bethel's Jews rally around boy's bar mitzvah

By ANGELA DENNING-BARNES
Daily News correspondent

Solomon Krevans and Torah teacher David Horesh bless the scroll during practice for the 13-year-old's April bar mitzvah.	Dr. Julius Richard Krevans, left, his son Dr. J.R. Krevans Jr., Solomon Krevans and David Horesh participate in a blessing of the wine ceremony before Solomon's bar mitzvah feast. His bar mitzvah was the first ever in Bethel, which has a small Jewish community..

BETHEL -- Wearing a red T-shirt with an American flag on it, Solomon Krevans could have been any teenager growing up in Bethel. However, when the 13-year-old placed the Jewish "kippah" on his head and covered his shoulders with his prayer shawl, or "tallit," he quickly transformed into a young man preparing for his bar mitzvah. He recited passages from the Torah in steady, rhythmic Hebrew for five minutes, with a sincerity that his teacher, David Horesh, had grown to expect after guiding Krevans through his Judaism studies once a week for the past year.

Krevans and Horesh are two of only a handful of Jewish people living in Bethel. Krevans' bar mitzvah in late April was the first ever in the Western Alaska hub community. Krevans said this Jewish tradition, which could be likened to a coming-of-age ceremony, was important to him.

"Because it's what's going to give me my connection in other places to the Jewish religion," Krevans said. "I mean, you can be Jewish and do the same things that Jewish people do, but you aren't exactly considered as Jewish and you're not exactly given as many responsibilities in Jewish communities if you don't have your bar mitzvah."

There is no synagogue in Bethel. Horesh is not a rabbi, although some in the congregation affectionately call him one. And there was no Torah, or scroll, considered the core of Jewish teaching, until Horesh purchased one on eBay a year and a half ago.

On that night, Bethel's small Jewish community was gathered at the Horesh household. The men were in the kitchen, the women in the nearby family room, all discussing the bar mitzvah. Then 11-year-old Krevans suggested they look for a Torah, and Horesh proceeded to pull out his laptop computer. He found a Torah on eBay that night.

"All the guys said, 'I'm in for a thousand. ... I'm in for a thousand,' " Horesh said. "And that's what all the women in the other room heard. And they yelled, 'You're in for a thousand for what?' "

They found out the next morning their bid had won -- $3,000 plus $100 for shipping from Israel.

Horesh has four children, ages 7, 6, 5, and 4. They are home-schooled, and Horesh teaches them Western studies along with Hebrew and a heavy dose of Judaism. Because of his strong faith and background growing up in Israel, the Krevans family asked Horesh to guide their son in his Judaism studies.

Horesh and his wife, Dana Hall, keep a kosher home. They order hundreds of pounds of kosher meats and dairy from Seattle every year. Their pantry is stacked high with boxes of matzo ball mix and their freezer packed with dozens of chickens and pounds of cheese. They observe Sabbath Friday evening through Saturday night, abiding by rules laid out in the Torah, including abstinence from most forms of work, such as cooking, driving and shopping. They also invite Bethel's other Jews to their home every week for Havdalah, the weekly ceremony of the Sabbath.

Horesh said having the Torah in his home has enriched his family's identity as Jewish people. He said they initially thought that they would take it out of the arc, or holding place, only during the three annual high holidays. But Horesh said the Torah demanded more.

"Because it's here in my house, I can't ignore it, out of a measure of respect," Horesh said. "Because I can't ignore it, I'm going to do what I'm supposed to do, and then because I'm doing that, it's a natural progression that I'm going to invite others to join me. And so really out of nowhere about a year ago, we started having Saturday-morning services here every week."

J.R. Krevans, Solomon's father, agreed that having the Torah so accessible is good. He moved to Bethel in 1984 to work as a doctor at the regional hospital and knows what it's like to be without.

"Most places the Torah is owned and kept by a big congregation, and you see it up at the front of the synagogue and maybe you handle it every now and then," J.R. Krevans said. "What's interesting is that handling one and being around one more frequently has not made it less special; it's made it, in fact, more special."

The last week in April was Passover, the most widely observed Jewish holiday. It recalls when the Jews escaped Egypt's rule more than 3,000 years ago. Bethel's Jewish congregation held the holiday's ceremonial meal, a seder, for the whole community of Bethel. About 100 people from different faiths gathered in the hall Saturday evening to hear the traditional Passover reading of the Haggadah and to eat traditional Jewish matzo ball soup.

Although this was not the first public seder in Bethel, Krevans said this year's was special because his son had asked to lead the ceremony. Under Horesh's guidance, Solomon had prepared a Haggadah, choosing the stories, prayers and songs to include in the booklet.

"We clearly have to work to maintain our religion," Krevans said. "I think there's a reality to that, that when you have to work at something, it becomes more important, and people recognize that."

Angela Denning-Barnes lives in Bethel and is news director for KYUK public radio. Nili Sundown is a freelance photographer.