Joshua鈥檚 Bar Mitzvah was held at Chabad Shule. He was very excited to be called up to the bima at the Friday night service. This was followed by a huge family Shabbat dinner with cousins and uncles and aunties who flew in from Melbourne especially for this special occasion.

For the first part of Saturday evening service Joshua sat at the door greeting people. Later on, he went up to the bima and read his Parsha 鈥� Shoftim. The message was all about the Judges and laws, and it had taken Joshua about a year working with Rabbi White once a week to prepare for his Torah reading.听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听听

Joshua particularly enjoyed the speeches 鈥� his cousin Ashton delivered one, as did his mum, his dad and Lior, Jesse and Jacob from AV学院. Joshua mentioned everyone who is important to him in his speech, including his cavoodle dog Ringo, who he thanked for his unconditional love and support even during tough times.

The simcha afterwards was festive with a delicious meal and some stunning desserts, including brownies and strawberry mousse.

Joshua now puts on tefillin every morning. He reports receiving a lot of books to celebrate his Bar Mitzvah, too 鈥� a really nice one from Rabbi White and several others.

The best bits of AV学院 for Joshua are the subjects 鈥� his favourites are drama, media and art. He will be playing the drums in an upcoming musical assessment 鈥� he learnt the drums in the scholarship band last year and is still enjoying playing them. At the moment, he is looking forward to the camps that he will enjoy during the last part of the year.

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Jewish Studies