He supported (1878–88) the secondary school which had 1,400 Jewish pupils. He encouraged productivity among the Jewish poverty-stricken classes and was the initiator and founder of vocational schools and a community workshop center. As chairman, Natanson successfully reorganized and considerably extended the public and administrative services of the community, managing also to balance its budget. In 1871 he became chairman of the executive of the Jewish community of Warsaw, a position he held until his death. In 1863 he was elected to the presidency of the Polish medical society. Natanson was also one of the public health pioneers in Poland, and was active in the campaign against the cholera epidemic in Warsaw (1848–52). In 1847 he founded the periodical Tygodnik Lekarski, one of the first modern medical publications in Polish, which he edited and financed until 1872. A member of the Jewish intellectual and assimilationist circle of Warsaw, Natanson was the son of the banker and industrialist Wolf Zelig Natanson (1795–1879). Inside them are pieces of paper which have sentences from the Torah written on them.NATANSON, LUDWIK (1822–1896), physician and communal worker. From now on, he may also wear little black leather boxes on his left arm and on his forehead at the morning services in the synagogue. It is called a tallit. Only adults wear these, so it is a sign that he has become an adult in the eyes of the community. Several times a week, they attend special classes to study Hebrew and the history of their people. At his Bar Mitzvah a Jewish boy wears a prayer shawl for the first time. Jews who live in Israel speak Hebrew, but for many Jewish children from other countries, learning to read the Torah is like reading a foreign language. At the ceremony he will be asked to read a section from the Torah, the Jewish scriptures which are written in the ancient language of Hebrew. The words ‘Bar Mitzvah’ mean ‘a son of the Commandments.’ ‘Bat Mitzvah’ means ‘a daughter of the Commandments.’ A Jewish boy studies hard for his Bar Mitzvah. These are the most important rules of Judaism. In the synagogue, the girl says a special prayer on the Sabbath after her twelfth birthday. Jews believe that when a boy turns thirteen and a girl turns twelve, they are old enough to understand and obey the Ten Commandments. In the past, Jewish girls never had initiation ceremonies, but now, many modern Jewish families have an initiation ceremony for them

The child is given his Hebrew name during the ceremony. Girls are usually given their Hebrew name in the synagogue, and among European Jews, it is a custom to name the children after a dead ancestor.Ī Jewish boy has his Bar Mitzvah in a synagogue on the first Saturday after his thirteenth birthday. To please Elijah, God promised that no B’rit Milah would take place without Elijah’s presence. The circumcision ritual is performed by a trained expert According to legend, Milah was not observed at a certain time in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. It shows that the promise of God’s faithfulness will apply to him. During the ceremony of ‘Milah’ a chair is set aside in honor of the prophet Elijah. When a boy is circumcised, it is a sign that he is entering the Jewish community - the community of the descendants of Abraham.

It symbolises the covenant or agreement that Abraham entered with God. This is a religious rite performed eight days after the boy’s birth. The Hebrew term is B’rit Milah (covenant of Circumcision).

Jewish initiater