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Amichai Jackson, a bar mitzvah boy from the Gush Etzion community of Elazar, decided that in place of a party to celebrate his milestone event – his parents should use the money earmarked for the occasion and treat IDF soldiers to dinner. Amichai was slated to celebrate his bar mitzvah a month after the breakout of Operation Swords of Iron. He was called to the Torah but decided to push off his party to quieter times. His mother Ilana said "After deliberating, Amichai decided to do something meaningful for the soldiers. Instead of having a party with family members and...

G-d help him. Less than 24 hours after a special counsel was named to probe Hunter Biden’s alleged tax and gun crimes, and while GOP investigators continued to search his bank records for signs of influence-peddling, the first son was begging the Big Guy upstairs for justice – as he led a public prayer at his nephew’s bar mitzvah. The Aug. 12 trip to Marietta, Georgia brought Biden, 53, and wife Melissa to a suburban synagogue for the coming-of-age ceremony of Jayden Cohen, 13, the son of Melissa’s brother Davan. “Our God and God of our ancestors,” Biden beseeched the...

The Bar Mitzvah ceremony takes place individually, around the time the Jewish boy celebrates his 13'Th Birthday. Christian Confirmation takes place in groups, annually, in a High Mass

A New Jersey middle school was forced to hold virtual classes on Friday after several students contracted COVID-19 while celebrating the bar mitzvah of former Gov. Chris Christie‘s nephew, The Post has learned. The event involving the 13-year-old son of Todd and Andrea Christie took place last weekend and school officials learned late Thursday night that it led to an outbreak, Mendham Township schools Superintendent Salvatore Constantino said. “There were, unfortunately, a few adult cases and a few student cases that came out of it,” Constantino told The Post. There were already “a few cases” at Mendham Township Middle School...

For any who missed this gem. Guaranteed to make you smile.

Yisrael Kristal, a Holocaust survivor who lives in Israel, missed bar mitzvah because of World War IThe world’s oldest man, 113-year-old Yisrael Kristal, a Holocaust survivor living in Israel, will celebrate his bar mitzvah. Kristal’s daughter, Shulimath Kristal Kuperstoch, told the DPA news agency that about 100 family members will gather in Kristal’s home city of Haifa in the coming weeks to mark the rite. “We will bless him, we will dance with him, we will be happy,” she said. Kristal had his birthday last week. He was recognized as the world’s oldest man in March. He missed his bar...

Thanks to hip-hop superstar Drake’s latest music video, there are now far more eyes focusing on Temple Israel’s bimah than there are even during the High Holidays. And even though the song’s lyrics are decidedly more profane than sacred, the Reform synagogue's president said he hoped the video would help Jewish youth connect to Judaism. The video, parts of which were filmed in the Miami shul’s sanctuary, purports to depict Drake’s “re-bar mitzvah,” showing the Jewish rapper reading from what appears to be a Torah. But the accompanying song, "HYFR" (Hell Yeah F***ing Right), has nothing to do with a...

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel will head to Israel this week for his son's Bar Mitzvah celebration. The celebration may be moved from the Kotel (Western Wall) to an alternate location due to concerns that the ceremony might draw protests. In January, activists Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gvir, who serve as parliamentary aides to MK Michael Ben-Ari, wrote to Emanuel and suggested he avoid celebrating at the Kotel.

A Paramus middle school student was sent home Friday after he came to school dressed up as Jesus for Halloween. For a few hours, Alex Woinski was the messiah of West Brook Middle School, but like the real Jesus, Woinski was condemned, so to speak. "Sort of like a new remake of what supposedly happened," Woinski told CBS 2. Decked out in sandals, a robe, fake beard and thorns, the 13-year-old joined 500 other students at his school's Halloween celebration, and on this day, he was the chosen one - to go home. "It was offensive to some students," Woinski...

Last August, I was visiting my grandparents at their home in Los Angeles. I live in Moscow and travel often to the US, and I try to make it a priority to fly to L.A. at least once a year to visit. Sitting in the living room with my grandparents on that summer night, I inquired about a family member who was turning thirteen and whether he will be having a Bar Mitzvah, and how I could help him celebrate one. Grandma says to me, "Why are you worried about your cousin, if your own grandfather never had a Bar...

A man and his ex-wife are embroiled in a holy war over the issue of circumcising the couple's 12-year-old son. The Oregon Supreme Court is now considering the case of James Boldt, a family-law attorney who converted to Judaism in 2004. He seeks to have the minor surgery performed against the wishes of the boy's mother, Lia Boldt, who is Russian Orthodox. "It's the classic kind of decision a custodial parent would make," said James Boldt, according to the Oregonian newspaper. Lia Boldt, 45, filed for divorce in 1998, and though she initially won custody, James Boldt, who now lives...

Editor's note: The following commentary is adapted from an address by Rabbi Shmuley to his son Mendy in synagogue on Saturday, May 6, 2006. ------------------------------------------------------ Mendy, today is your Bar Mitzvah. As your father, I want to help inspire you on this momentous occasion with words that I hope will stay with you forever. In your Torah portion, you read God's seminal command, "Be holy, for I the Lord your God am Holy" (Leviticus 19:2). To be holy is to be set apart. The Sabbath is holy because its restfulness distinguishes it from the work days of the week. The...

MOSCOW, Russia – Another joyous occasion in Russia’s capital has benefited multiple children of the Moscow Jewish community. This Sunday, 15 students attending the ‘Achei Tmimim’ Day School network joined together for a life-changing celebration. The young enthusiasts eagerly underwent their Bar Mitzvah ceremony, for which many of their families, friends and teachers had gathered to mark this occasion. The Head of the School, Rabbi Kuravsky, spoke to the children at the event, expressing pride in their decision to finally become adults in the eyes of the Jewish community. He presented books to each of the children, after which they...

It may have taken 63 years but Herman Rosenblat is finally able to celebrate being a man. Rosenblat, formerly of Bay Terrace, received his Bar Mitzvah today at Congregation Beth Sholom Chabad in Mineola. Although most Jewish boys celebrate at age 13 -- the age when the child becomes responsible for himself under Jewish law -- Rosenblat was hardly in a position for balloons and streamers: the 76-year-old Polish immigrant spent his 13th year in a concentration camp during World War II. Rosenblat celebrated with about a dozen friends and local congregants, eating cookies and dancing the Hora. But his...

It was "beshert." The Yiddish term signifying "meant to be" was the word that often passed through the lips of those in attendance at Herman Rosenblat's bar mitzvah Thursday. They were referring not only to the celebration -- an event 63 years in the making -- but to his wife, Roma, and the amazing story of how they got together. Rosenblat, formerly of Bay Terrace, and now living in Florida, became a bar mitzvah at Congregation Beth Sholom Chabad in Mineola, with more than a dozen well-wishers in attendance. At age 76, he was one of the oldest to celebrate...

"This, by local standards, is a modest affair. Hundreds of New York bar mitzvahs cost $100,000 or more. Many top the quarter-million-dollar mark. If you're ready to spend that sort of money on a five-hour shindig for an eighth-grader, Pat James is the man to see. " "A few weeks ago, David H. Brooks, the CEO of a body-armor maker, reportedly spent millions on his daughter's bat mitzvah, renting out the Rainbow Room, which sits atop Rockefeller Plaza, and flying in the rapper 50 Cent, as well as Aerosmith, Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks." "There have been bar mitzvahs at...

British retail billionaire Philip Green has hired chart-topping R&B group Destiny's Child to perform at his son's bar mitzvah. The stars are set to entertain guests at the three-day event on the French Riviera estimated to have cost the Bhs and Top Shop boss £4m ($7.4m). Singer Justin Timberlake could also be performing, The Times reports. Mr Green is said to have chartered a plane to fly about 200 of his family's friends to the bash this weekend. The guests are being put up at the exclusive Hotel du Cap in Cannes, with the actual bar mitzvah itself expected to...

President Bush has implemented economic policies that resemble those of the Roman Empire, which forced the baby Jesus into homelessness on the night of his birth, former civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson said in a pre-Christmas rant late Thursday. "In the last [Bush] budget, we cut housing again, and that was Jesus' dilemma. In Bethlehem, his family ended up homeless," Jackson told MSNBC's Campbell Brown. "Rome was a wealthy country that left Jesus and Mary and Joseph, in a sense, homeless," he complained. "He was born an at-risk baby." The GOP bashing Democrat said that while Bush's reelection campaign...

We Jews are a funny people. We celebrate the weirdest things. Everyone's heard of end-of-the-school-year parties, graduation parties, retirement parties. But who ever throws a get-to-work party? Let me explain. Imagine that you have this dream job that's the envy of all your friends. Then, one day you receive a summons to the boss's office. The conversation goes something like this: Boss: "Have a seat." You: "Thank you." Boss: "You've been here -- what is it, twelve years now?" You: "Yeah, it's almost that already. You guys take such good care of me..." Boss: "We pay you a comfortable living...

He didn't get to read from the Torah. But Simon, donning a prayer shawl and yarmulke, was surrounded by family, furry friends and platters of bagels as the Coton de Tulear recently celebrated his "bark" mitzvah. "It's just another one of those things New York City dog owners do," said Simon's owner Beth Aronson, 27, a Manhattan sales executive. "He's a very socialized dog, and for him it was a happy occasion."