Beverly Chervitz is a former tap dancer, champion roller skater and accordion player. On, Aug. 27, she added bat mitzvah to her resumé.

Chervitz actually took the bimah at Congregation B’nai Amoona for her second bat mitzvah (the first occurred the same week 32 years ago). The encore bat mitzvah marks the third at B’nai Amoona among Chervitz and two close friends, Lester Goldman and Rabbi Neal Rose.

The idea for a second b’nai mitzvot came from a casual conversation a few years ago when the three were having dinner. Chervitz was an adult when she had her first bat mitzvah; Goldman and Rose celebrated their bar mitzvahs at age 13 in 1952. All three friends, who are 83, share the same month and year of birth: April 1939.

At the dinner, Rose said: “I don’t know how we got talking about it, but one of us, maybe me, said, ‘OK, guys, we’re going to do our second b’nai mitzvot together.’ ” 

That got the ball rolling when Goldman was asked by his grandson Zachary Nathanson (son of Cantor Sharon Nathanson of B’nai Amoona) to join him on his bar mitzvah in April.

“It was really a pleasure for me to be able to share it with him, especially because I had my first bar mitzvah at the University City Loop building,” Goldman said. “There are still some things in our synagogue that were there when I had my first bar mitzvah: the ark, the Ten Commandments above the ark and the menorah.”

Like Goldman, Rose got a request from a grandchild.

“I got a call from my granddaughter Dea Kosmin-Rose in Winnipeg,” he said. “She asked, ‘Would you like to have your second bar mitzvah with me?› And I had been thinking about it, but I didn’t want to ask her. Before she finished, I said yes!”

Cantor Nathanson helped prepare all three for their encores. That was especially useful for Rabbi Rose, who didn’t have a great experience on his first attempt when he tried memorizing the Torah reading. 

“I got up there and forgot everything,” Rose said. “So all these years, I had this great trauma about reading the Torah in public. I took lessons with Cantor Sharon and she was very gracious, because I can’t carry a tune. So she really got me through.”

Rose also gave high marks to his compatriot Goldman.

“Lester was pretty good, but his grandson was great,” Rose said.

Chervitz, who is also a B’nai Amoona Minyanaire and a 2019 Jewish Light Unsung Hero, was eager to join her two friends performing encore b’nai mitzvot.

“It’s an honor for me to be here with Rabbi Neal and Lester,” she said. “They are just amazing people in their own right, and to include me to join them is just terrific. It’s nice if you’ve been blessed and you reach the age where you are able to have a second bat mitzvah, then you should definitely do it. 

“I hope that other women will step forward, and I’d like to encourage them to do it. It’s a huge time commitment. But it’s worth the effort.”