JEWISH LIFE ADLER-CAPLIN-CLAYMAN TWINNING BAT MITZVAH STORY UPDATE — In this year’s annual Bar and Bat Mitzvah Jewish Life magazine, we reported the story of Victoria Caplin, a young girl from London, England, who participated in a Yad Vashem B’nai Mitzvah twinning program and was matched with Victoria Adler. The program matches children who are celebrating their B’nai Mitzvah with children who perished in the Holocaust before they reached that age. Though having their own B’nai Mitzvah was robbed from those children, this is one small way to honor their memories.
Adler’s parents survived the Holocaust and settled in Kansas City, where her father eventually owned Adler’s Kosher Meat, a butcher shop in Waldo. Erika Adler Clayman, Victoria Adler’s sister, was born several years after Victoria died.
Coincidentally, the Bat Mitzvah twins had the same first name. While Victoria Caplin was studying for her Bat Mitzvah, they discovered that Victoria Adler had family living in Kansas City, and they became friendly. Earlier this summer Victoria Caplin’s parents were visiting the U.S., and Clayman decided to go to Washington, D.C., and meet her new friends in person for the first time.
“We had a wonderful time and I must say that we were all so excited to get together,” Clayman said. “The anticipation and excitement grew by the minute as time was getting closer to the time of our prescheduled meeting. They were charming, lovely and very compassionate people and so interested in our Jewish community and our traditions in KC as Jackie compared it to London.”
Clayman went on to say, “It really was a pleasure to meet them. It seemed like meeting long-lost family and it really was quite emotional. I wish I could put it in words that captured our get-together.”
Last week a group of AJC leaders in Washington, D.C., discussed a range of Middle East and transatlantic issues in a private meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, expressing the organization’s appreciation of efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to confront Iranian aggression and assure Israel’s security and its fair treatment in international forums.
AJC has focused policy research and advocacy for more than two decades on the Iranian threat to regional and global peace and opposed the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action as an insufficient brake on Iran’s nuclear ambitions and a missed opportunity to roll back the regime’s ballistic missile development and support for subversion and terror.
Joining AJC CEO David Harris and AJC Board President John Shapiro in the State Department meeting were AJC Associate Executive Director for Policy Jason Isaacson and AJC Kansas City Regional Director Marvin Szneler. During his years in the House, representing the Fourth Congressional District of Kansas from 2011 to 2017, Secretary Pompeo was in regular touch with AJC Kansas City, including twice speaking with the JCRB|AJC board of directors in Overland Park.
“The administration has a clear-eyed view of Iran’s malignant intentions, and we applaud its comprehensive approach to applying pressure politically, strategically and economically to induce a recalculation and policy change by Tehran,” Harris said. “We hope that America’s allies and strategic partners, cognizant of the threat, will join in this vital effort.”