Bar Mitzvah Boy

Bar Mitzvah Boy is a British television play, written by Jack Rosenthal and originally transmitted in the Play for Today anthology series on BBC1. Broadcast on 14 September 1976, the 75-minute production was directed by Michael Tuchner and produced by Graeme MacDonald.

Details

Starring Jeremy Steyn, Kim Clifford, Mark Herman, Adrienne Posta, Maria Charles, Pamela Manson and Bernard Spear, the play tells the story of a young Jewish boy, Eliott Green (Steyn), in a working class family living in North East London of the 1970s, and the apprehensions the boy feels over his forthcoming Bar Mitzvah. Meanwhile, the family prepares for the celebration, preoccupied with their own preparations for the b'nai mitzvah.

Programme notes for a Boston Jewish Film Festival screening in 2004 hailed the play as "a BBC classic... this bittersweet comedy about a British boy’s upcoming Bar Mitzvah features a strong sense of time and place [and] stellar acting", while the British Film Institute's website describes it as "a simple tale made memorable by genius writing and sympathetic performances."

Bar Mitzvah Boy (musical)

Bar Mitzvah Boy is a musical with a book by Jack Rosenthal, lyrics by Don Black, and music by Jule Styne.

Based on Rosenthal's award-winning 1976 BBC1 teleplay of the same name, it focuses on young Eliot Green who, filled with apprehension, escapes from the synagogue where he is about to make his bar mitzvah, much to the dismay of his middle class parents, who have invested their savings in a lavish party to celebrate their son's coming of age.

The West End production opened on 31 October 1978 at Her Majesty's Theatre, where it ran for 78 performances. The cast included Barry Angel, Joyce Blair, Zelah Clarke, Leonie Cosman, Ray C. Davis, Gordon Faith, Ashley Knight, Benny Lee, Barry Martin, Vivienne Martin, Harry Towb, Kerry Shale and Peter Whitman. CBS released an original cast recording.

The Americanized adaptation by Martin Gottfried changed the setting from 1970s Britain to 1946 Brooklyn, but its central story remained the same.

The off-Broadway production, directed by Robert Kalfin, opened on June 10, 1987 at the American Jewish Theater of the 92nd Street Y. The cast included Peter Smith as Eliot, with Larry Keith, Mary Gutzi, Mary Stout, Michael Cone, Michael Callan, Eleanor Reissa, Daniel Marcus, Kimberly Stern, and Reuben Schafer.

Bar and Bat Mitzvah

Bar Mitzvah (Hebrew: בַּר מִצְוָה) and Bat Mitzvah (Hebrew: בַּת מִצְוָה) (Ashkenazi pronunciation: "Bas Mitzvah") (plural: B'nai Mitzvah for boys, and B'not Mitzvah – Ashkenazi pronunciation: "B'nos Mitzvah" – for girls) are Jewish coming of age rituals.

Bar (בַּר) is a Jewish Babylonian Aramaic word literally meaning "son" (בֵּן), while bat (בַּת) means "daughter" in Hebrew, and mitzvah (מִצְוָה) means "commandment" or "law" (plural: mitzvot). Thus bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah literally translate to "son of commandment" and "daughter of commandment". However, in rabbinical usage, the word bar means "under the category of" or "subject to". Bar mitzvah therefore translates to "an [agent] who is subject to the law". Although the term is commonly used to refer to the ritual itself, in fact the phrase originally refers to the person.

According to Jewish law, when Jewish boys become 13 years old, they become accountable for their actions and become a bar mitzvah. A girl becomes a bat mitzvah at the age of 12 according to Orthodox and Conservative Jews, and at the age of 13 according to Reform Jews. Prior to reaching bar mitzvah age, the child's parents hold the responsibility for educating their children, but not directly for their actions. After this age, the boys and girls bear their own responsibility for Jewish ritual law, tradition, and ethics, and are able to participate in all areas of Jewish community life. Traditionally, the father of the bar mitzvah gives thanks to God that he is no longer punished for the child's sins (Genesis Rabba, Toldot 23:11). In addition to being considered accountable for their actions from a religious perspective, b'nai mitzvah may be counted towards a minyan (prayer quorum) and may lead prayer and other religious services in the family and the community.