The Los Angeles bar mitzvah is a sitting duck. Wild tales of gross excess put fear, disgust and embarrassment into the heart of every Jewish parent I know.
The service was uneventful (including the requisite rabbi\’s sermon on \”The Passion\”). The party was great — classy in a way affairs that expensive rarely succeed in being. But as the day progressed, a subtle feeling I barely remembered kept sneaking up on me. The insecurity of 13.
With entrée in both spheres and his own bent for community involvement, Joel Landau\’s influence is felt far beyond Beth Jacob, which was his first full time pulpit 11 years ago.
This summer, Jacqueline Berlin, 7, will leave her mom, dad
and younger sister to enter the world of overnight camp for the first time.
\”Danny\’s sister, Michelle, asked, \’What would Danny have liked for his birthday?\” his father said. \”And the answer came naturally; he would have liked a jam session with all his friends. And where were all his friends? They were all over the world. So we began making phone calls.\”
\”I knew this could be a good story because so many different things had happened to people,\” said Dan Klores, sounding more like an introvert than a schmoozer. \”You have a group of guys, and one is homeless, one wins a $45 million lottery, two lose their children and one lives without electricity or running water in Woodstock, N.Y.\”
\”Do you need a ride home?\” he asked me. Those were the last words he spoke to me. I can still feel the grip of his handshake, and his voice still rattles around in my head.
When Muriel Zollman decided to study beginning Hebrew with Rabbi Sally Olins at Temple B\’nai Hayim in Sherman Oaks a couple of years ago, it was only so she could follow the prayers during services like everyone else in her family.
For his third slice of \”Pie,\” Adam Herz upgraded to wedding cake because \”I was hosting bachelor parties and going to like, 10 weddings a year.\”
I want to respond to my observant friends who have asked me to answer this question: What can they take from a Jew who doesn\’t believe the Torah is the word of God and who feels no need or obligation to follow His commandments? What can they take from that \”truth\”?
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