As a Los Angeles Unified School District teacher of world issues for seniors in Los Angeles, I began yesterday\’s class by playing a taped interview of Michael Moore talking about his movie, \”Fahrenheit 9/11.\” I had suggested that the class go see the film, so we could discuss it.
My husband and I spent our courtship on the protest fields of Washington, D.C. Yet here we were, in the thick of planning what I am sure we once believed to be the most bourgeois enterprise imaginable: a \”catered affair,\” entertainment that would cost thousands and be over in a matter of hours. How had we gotten ourselves into this?
It is a job that demands a great deal of patience with parents as well as kids. Everything depends on: a) the cranial size of the student, and b) the size of the bribes offered by the parents to the kid.
Who is Marion Pritchard and why would a Jewish girl choose to share her special day with a non-Jew more than six times her age?
No, you didn\’t have to leave New York to discover Jewish observance, but something had to plant the desire. In my case, it was my bar mitzvah.
\”We only have your dad and my mom left,\” I told my husband then. \”The rest of the week is too hectic for visits. We\’ve got to get them over here for Shabbat.\”
I could never imagine how much more precious this time would become, having had no inkling that it would be so limited.
When the child is born, start saving! It\’s not a bad idea to start two savings accounts; one for college and one for the bar or bat mitzvah.
When the date was set, everything came into focus. He really will become a bar mitzvah. How exciting the whole year became. Bobby knew his prayers and haftarah very well. No one was concerned about that. He began to work on his sermon and master that, too.
\”Did you book the Lakers cheerleaders?\” asked Rabbi Steven Leder, referring to a notorious bar mitzvah party in Los Angeles, where he is rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple.
While most 13-year-olds gleefully rip wrapping paper off their abundant bar/bat mitzvah presents and dream of ways to spend their gift money, a growing number of teens are opting to make their bar/bat mitzvah more meaningful.
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