Eight Bar Mitzvah boys stood side by side at the Kosel, celebrating their acceptance of mitzvos at the site from which holiness never leaves.

Passersby might have assumed they were classmates celebrating their special day together, but the presence of Yad L’Achim activists at the scene helping the boys to adjust their Tefillin hinted at a much more dramatic story.

These boys were rescued from Arab villages in recent months by Yad L’Achim, together with their mothers and brothers. Since then, they have been accompanied by social workers and mentoring teams assigned by Yad L’Achim to help them make the transition from the hostile environment they grew up in to the Jewish world.

Earlier, they received a beautiful package that included mehudar Tefillin and a Tallis. The moving event at the Kosel last week was a joint effort by Yad L’Achim and Chabad Netanya.

It was hard to believe that just a few months ago, the boys spoke Arabic and woke up every morning to the voice of the muezzin, unaware that they were Jews. And now they were standing at the stones of the Kosel, adorned in Tefillin, crying out “Shema Yisrael!”

The emotional highlight of the event was the Torah reading. With so many people at the Kosel it was possible to organize several Torah readings so that all eight boys could receive an aliyah. There were no fathers on hand to recite the brachah of Baruch She’patrani. In their place were their mothers, watching from the Ezras Nashim and weeping tears of joy at a sight they never thought they’d see.

One poignant moment came when a boy asked that a Mishebeirach be recited for his two older brothers, who have not yet been rescued.

Standing beside the boys was Rabbi Eliezer Menachem Broida, who donated the eight pairs of tefillin.

After davening, the boys and their mothers joined Yad L’Achim officials Rabbi Yoav Robinson and Rabbi Chaim Kahn on a special tour of the Kosel tunnels. A festive meal marking the boys’ Bar Mitzvah will be held shortly, Yad L’Achim announced.

“Until now,” said one of the mothers, “I thought the most moving moment of my life was when the rescue vehicle left the village and sped onto Highway 6. Now, after the Bar Mitzvah at the Kosel, I think that this was even more moving. Here, for the first time, I felt that we were truly starting our lives anew.”

Rabbi Shmuel Lipshitz, one of the leaders of Yad L’Achim, commented following the ceremony: “Years of separation from every spark of Judaism, of suffering and pain, were left behind at the sight of the pure faces of these Bar Mitzvah boys.”

Referring to the moving Mishebeirach, he said: “Let us not forget all those many other Jewish children who still wake up every morning in hostile villages, unaware that they are lost sons of the Jewish people. We will continue to do everything to save them and return them to their Father in Heaven, to their people and to their homeland.”

For more information visit www.yadlachim.org or email [email protected]. Yad L’Achim: 4018 18th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11218. Tel: 1-866-923-5224 (1-866-YAD-LACH).