Comments on: Dark Side of the Manischewitz

By: Anonymous City Girl

Anonymous City Girl — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 21:58:55 +0000

I’m 32 and my mother still likes to break out my bat mitzvah and and my brother’s bar mitzvah videos… it’s just a matter of time before she has them converted to DVD.

By: amanda

amanda — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 21:08:58 +0000

what about the intro video collage of the the gradually aging 13-year-old set to “forever young”…you can’t have a bar mitzvah video without that…

By: Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 14:35:09 +0000

I love that video. Ever seen The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz? He started a business filming bar mitzvahs and the results are hilarious.

By: Brooke

Brooke — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 01:24:23 +0000

Morty’s House of Pork!

By: Neil

Neil — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 01:00:00 +0000

Lobo Pequeno’s Rascal House for bagels and yuca with mojo!

(I hate to explain a joke but there is a famous Jewish deli in Miami called Wolfie’s Rascal House and the translation of the Spanish Lobo Pequeno is “little wolf” — so a good name for a Jewish/Cuban restaurant in Miami, where everyone seems to be…)

Look, you can’t expect everything to be funny…

By: Brooke

Brooke — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 00:40:11 +0000

You just gave me an idea - a Jewish/Cuban restaurant. Now that would be a smash in Miami!

By: Neil

Neil — Thu, 21 Jul 2005 21:30:36 +0000

Oops. I knew it looked wrong, but I checked on Google and it seems like all the goys and bad Jews spell it wrong. Thanks. By the way, Brooke, since you love cooking, my mother makes a great pot roast by pouring in some Manischewitz. You should try it. You may need to drive over to Collins Ave. in Miami Beach to pick a bottle up, though.

By: Brooke

Brooke — Thu, 21 Jul 2005 21:24:15 +0000

Manischewitz. You spelled it wrong. Bad jew! Bad!

By: Neil

Neil — Thu, 21 Jul 2005 20:23:38 +0000

Neil — first of all, I love your first name. Thanks for writing. But you should remember, that as silly as some of these bar mitzvahs are — at least these kids are getting a bar mitvah and continuing the tradition. I don’t see how you can see such dire problems with assimiliation because of Jewish children actually having bar mitzvahs. If there is a problem with the ceremony, it’s not the fault of these kids — the religious ritual needs to change to reflect the fact that these are just kids — and not “men” and “women.” I once wrote a post suggesting that Jews have a bar mitzvah every 13 years. I’m not sure how halachic that is, but why not?

http://tinyurl.com/afaj6

At this post, there’s also a link to a great article about the modern day bar mitzvah written by Slate writer Emily Bazelon.

By: Neil Parks

Neil Parks — Thu, 21 Jul 2005 20:11:18 +0000

It is sad that these families, and the children in whose “honor” this supposed to be, probably have no idea what it means to become a bar mitzva or a bat mitzva.

A Jewish boy becomes obligated to keep the mitzvos of the Torah when he reaches 13 years of age. A Jewish girl acquires that obligation at age 12. This occurs regardless of any ceremony or celebration that may be held to mark the occasion.

Do they even know what being Jewish is all about? Do they think it means only having a big secular 13th birthday party, and maybe going to the temple once or twice a year?

Their grandchildren won’t be Jewish.

Wake up, Yidden! What Pharaoh and Haman and Hitler could not do to us, we are doing to ourselves through assimilation.

NEIL PARKS
Beachwood, Ohio