Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Copenhagen Girl Whose Bat Mitzvah Was Marred by Terror Is Feted in Israel

The bat mitzvah girl whose celebration in Copenhagen ended abruptly after the shooting death of a volunteer synagogue guard was feted in Israel.

Hannah Bentow, 13, on Sunday night in Jerusalem had a ceremony and a dance party for girls and women with a DJ. The party took place at the headquarters of the Matan women’s study program.

The Feb. 15 celebration of Bentow’s bat mitzvah at the central Copenhagen shul, or Krystalgade Synagogue, had been put off a year due to the year of mourning for her grandmother, according to Josh Salmon of Toronto, one of the philanthropists who helped fund the trip.

The teen reportedly had said to her mother after the shooting attack by an Islamist fanatic that killed guard Dan Uzan, “I wish I didn’t have a bat mitzvah, and then Dan would still be alive.”

The Dan Hotels chain and some private family foundations paid for Bentow and her family to hold the bat mitzvah party in Israel as well as vacation there for a week.

In Eilat, the family spent time at the dolphin reef in a program designed specifically for victims of trauma.

Also, they distributed care packages to soldiers at army bases.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.