When my son celebrated his bar mitzvah three years ago, our household was a whirlwind of practice and preparation. All the more reason I’m impressed by the feats of a two-mom family whose four kids all celebrated becoming b’nai mitzvah on the same day.
Nathan, Emma, Noa and Elie Friedman-Lowenthal live in Northern California with their moms Shelley Friedman and Tania Lowenthal, reports the Jewish News of Northern California. The children are two sets of twins; their moms became pregnant at the same time and delivered within two weeks of each other.
Simultaneous pregnancies are hardly common—not every person in a two-uterus couple wants to become pregnant, much less at the same time as a partner—but they’re not as rare as you might think, either. I’ve documented five other such instances, and I’m sure there are more. (Leave a comment if one was you!)
At their b’nai mitzvah service, each of the children offered a different drash, or interpretive sermon on the weekly Torah portion. Emma talked about feminism; Nathan on “favoritism” and being the one male in the family; Noa spoke of being truthful about who you are. Elie discussed their family and “noted that biblical brothers and sisters sometimes came from different parents, all to support her commentary that her family is just like any other. In fact, she said, her family was quite conventional compared with some families in the Bible.”
They are “such a bonded force,” Friedman told Jewish News. The first letters of their Hebrew names spell out the word for “unity.” Despite this, she also “said it has been their ongoing task as parents to help each of them to individuate.”
Mazel tov to them all!
(H/t to Keshet for the news. Also, while I’m a little more tuned in to Jewish news by virtue of being Jewish myself, I welcome news about queer families of all faiths and beliefs. Please let me know if you find any, particularly in local papers I may have overlooked—or if you want to write up and share your own story here.)