Gabe Zeller, who was unable to celebrate his Bar Mitzvah at age 13, celebrated it in 2026 at age 40.

Bar and Bat Mitzvahs are fairly regular occurrences at Chabad Jewish Center of South Metro Denver. In 2025, 18 young men and women celebrated their Jewish coming of age. The occasions, while adhering to Jewish law and respecting age-old traditions, were each tailored to reflect the celebrants’ individual personalities. The common denominator among all of them: the honorees were all either 12 or 13 years old.

Over the weekend of Jan. 30-31, 2026, the Bar Mitzvah of Gabe Zeller at South Metro was completely different, and one that everyone associated with it will never forget.

Gabe was not 13 when he celebrated his Bar Mitzvah. He was turning 40. The story of how that came to be is an emotional saga — one of challenge, strength, courage and familial love.

And a welcoming synagogue.

Gabe (Gavriel) Zeller was born to American parents in Jerusalem. He is one of eight children.

As Gabe tells it, the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck as he was born, and his brain was deprived of oxygen, resulting in cerebral palsy. His legs were deformed and his feet were not aligned.

“I had been told I was never going to walk, but I wasn’t accepting that,” he recalls.

Around the time he was eight or nine, Gabe was in a Jerusalem hospital when he was chosen out of thousands of children in Israel for a surgical clinical trial to straighten his legs.

The surgery, which involved breaking both of Gabe’s legs and grafting nerves, was successful. Gabe believes that was the blessing of having been born in Jerusalem — that he was chosen among many other children for this life-transforming surgery.

Gabe now walks with a walker, wearing leg braces.

Gabe’s family moved to south Florida and when he was a teenager. Due to unfortunate family dynamics, Gabe’s older sister Michelle, then 18, gave up her plans to attend Columbia University and stepped up to care for her seven siblings. She continued as Gabe’s official caregiver for the next 25 years.

Gabe and Michelle moved to Colorado, eventually settling in south Aurora along with Michelle’s new husband Itamar Twito and her sons Daniel and David. They became regular participants at Chabad South Metro, where Gabe and that community developed a mutual love affair.

Indeed, Gabe loved being part of the Chabad South Metro “family,” as its director Rabbi Avraham Mintz puts it. Gabe loves Judaism and Chabad became his “happy place.”

In September, 2025, tragedy struck. His sister and caregiver Michelle passed away at age 43, leaving a grief-stricken family and community. The Chabad family rallied around her family, providing for shiva and offering emotional support.

Since then, brother-in-law Itamar and Gabe have come to the shul every single morning and evening to say Kaddish for their beloved wife and sister. They are joined most days by David and Daniel. Itamar is honoring his wife’s memory by assuming the role of Gabe’s caregiver.

In a conversation Gabe had with Rabbi Mintz, it came up that Gabe’s 40th birthday was approaching, and that he had never had a Bar Mitzvah, to which Rabbi Mintz replied, “How about we combine the two, and instead of a 13-year-old Bar Mitzvah, we do a 40-year-old Bar Mitzvah?”

Gabe Zeller with Rabbi Avraham Mintz.

“As soon as I said those words, I saw Gabe’s face light up,” the rabbi recalls.

With just a few months to go, it was time to prepare. Because of Gabe’s cerebral palsy, reading does not come easy. He says he reads at first-grade level. But he does learn auditorily and he expresses himself very well verbally.

“During the months that we have been [at Chabad Jewish Center], I was able to catch on to the singing with the community. That’s how I was able to grasp it,” Gabe says.

While Gabe was preparing to lead part of the Shabbat morning service for his Bar Mitzvah, the Chabad South Metro community stepped up to plan and provide the celebration aspect of the big day. Rabbi Mintz was blown away by the outpouring of support.

Rabbi Mintz says, “People from the community — those who know Gabe very well and those who know Gabe not that well — reached out to me and said, ‘Rabbi, we want to be involved. How can I connect? How can I sponsor? How can I participate?’

“It snowballed and we ended up having a whole group of people who came together to provide the food and everything else.”

Gabe had never had his own tallit or tefilin. He always borrowed those provided by the shul.

Community members told Rabbi Mintz, “Let’s get him not a basic pair of tefilin; let’s get a beautiful pair, and let’s get him a beautiful tallis.”

“I found out what his favorite color is — light blue,” Rabbi Mintz says. “We got him a light blue tallis, a matching light blue tefilin bag with tefilin, and a light blue tallis bag, with his name embroidered. We made sure it’s like the Nuggets’ color, not like the Yankees’ blue.”

The rabbi wanted to make the Bar Mitzvah weekend even more special, so he reached out to the Shabbos Project Band, four young men from New Jersey, who had performed for South Metro during the High Holidays month. These are busy people who perform mostly in the New York area, but Rabbi Mintz took a long shot and asked if they might be available the Shabbat of Jan. 30-31 to come to Colorado. After Rabbi Mintz explained who Gabe is and the place he holds in the hearts of the community, the band members said they would come.

“They remembered Gabe from the High Holidays, and they flew in for that Shabbos. I said we would throw in a ski trip for them, and they said, ‘We don’t need a ski trip. We are were so touched by meeting Gabe.’”

That was probably a good thing as Colorado didn’t really have any snow that weekend, anyway.

Gabe’s Bar Mitzvah weekend kicked off with the Shabbos Project Band leading “a beautiful, spirited” Friday night service.

Prior to Friday night, the band found out Gabe’s Hebrew name, and they practiced harmonizing how they would call him up to the Torah on Shabbat morning.

The Shabbat morning service was packed. “Some people who come every Shabbos and some people whom I see once or twice a year. They all came to celebrate with Gabe,” says Rabbi Mintz. “No one felt like a stranger. Everyone felt like family.”

Gabe’s father and other family members came to Denver for the simcha.

Coincidentally — or not — Gabe’s Bar Mitzvah took place on Shabbat Shira, when in the Torah portion Beshalach, the story of the Israelites singing while crossing the Red Sea, is read. The Shabbos Project Band led the Shabbat service in four-part harmony.

For the Torah service, Gabe was able to balance himself and hold the Torah as it was taken out of the Ark. He led the singing of the Shema, and recited the Torah blessings as he was called up by the Shabbos Project singers for his Bar Mitzvah aliyah.

“I was blown away,” says Gabe. “I was so happy to have my Bar Mitzvah. I know people are supposed to have it at the age of 13, but — you know — it’s better late than never. I accomplished my goal.”

Rabbi Mintz adds: “When he got up there holding the Torah, leading the whole community with Shema, it was a very special time. Not only were the gates to Heaven open, but the gates to everybody’s hearts were open. You felt the love.”

The service was followed by a big kiddush lunch, and no one was in a hurry to go home. “People sat there for hours singing, led by the Shabbos Project,” says Rabbi Mintz.

The celebration continued Saturday evening with a musical Havdalah and celebration at Rabbi and Hindy Mintz’s home, across the street from the Chabad center, to which the entire community was invited.

“We had our guitars out, there were bongos, and the Shabbos Project Band led a beautiful Havdalah. Everybody was on their feet, celebrating,” Rabbi Mintz said.

There was dancing! Rabbi Meir Simon, Chabad’s youth director, danced with Gabe on his shoulders — not an easy feat. Rabbi Mintz admits that as thrilling as that was, he was a bit nervous and thinking about insurance with the slight-built Rabbi Simon balancing the larger-built Gabe on his shoulders: “But it really was beautiful. There was a safe takeoff and a safe landing.”

That musical Saturday night celebration capped off a Shabbat filled with joy, dignity and love for a beloved member of the South Metro community or, as Rabbi Mintz puts it, family. The simcha came at a time when Gabe and his family needed it most, while they are still grieving for Michelle.

Rabbi Mintz said at the Bar Mitzvah: “I believe 100% that Michelle, up in Heaven, was the one pulling the strings that this should happen because the way it happened was truly beautiful.”

© IJN 2026