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Have Bar Mitvah Parties Gotten Too Extravagant?
By
John Del Signore
Published Apr 19, 2010
Modified Apr 19, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Apr 19, 2010
Modified Apr 19, 2010
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Some Jews think Bar Mitzvah party spending has gotten way too decadent, but maybe they're just jealous of little Carly Sandler, who made her Bat Mitzvah party entrance from the ceiling of Cipriani Wall Street, harnessed to a wire and dressed in a catsuit. According to the Post, she was then "serenaded by Jon Bon Jovi for 45 minutes—to the point where she was rolling her eyes at her mother, wondering when the aging rock star would cede the stage back to her and her girlfriends." "My husband did well that year and he was proud of himself, and he wanted to throw a huge party," her mother Liza Sandler tells the tabloid.
Sandler's younger daughter Ryan was also extravagantly feted last October at the Plaza, where she performed an elaborate dance routine dressed as Britney Spears, while a troupe of Cirque du Soleil performers entertained the crowd of 400. "It was a pretty amazing party," says Sandler. "You didn't know where to look, there was so much happening in the room. There were contortionists on the ceiling, performers walking on stilts—it was like going to a show."
Rabbi Alan Stein, the cantor of Temple Sinai in Massapequa, LI, tells the Post, "It's called 'Keeping up with the Steins. I think some of these families need to concentrate more on the 'mitzvah' and less on the 'bar.' " And Cantor Sherwood Goffin, of Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan, says, "I think it's a tremendous waste of resources, especially in today's world. There's so much poverty in the world and Jewish programming that could be supported." But one Jew defended his son's lavish Bar Mitzvah thus: "I am the child of a Holocaust survivor, and I want to celebrate this day. For my parents, such a thing would be unthinkable, so I want to celebrate for them. I want to go a little over the top."
Tagged
bar mitzvah
bat mitzvah
conspicuous consumption
spending
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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