Skip to footer

Horowitz bar mitzvah: So you think you can mitzvah?

Horowitz's bar mitzvah entrance puts Billy Crystal, Alec Baldwin, and Hugh Jackson's opening Oscar numbers to shame. The Sam Horowitz bar mitzvah entrance tops all. 

|
Screenshot YouTube/Elixir Entertainment
Sam Horowitz at his bar mitzvah, ladies and gentlemen. Nothing will beat it.

So you think you can Mitzvah? Sam Horowitz, 13, entered manhood and reset the bar in bar mitzvah with a Christina Aguilera “burlesque” routine that looked more like Abby Lee choreographed it than a rabbi.

This was an extravaganza that Sam and his mom Angela Horowitz came up with after seeing a show where people popped out of chandeliers, the boy told Good Morning America.

Among the many things Jewish mothers are said to be, choreographer wasn’t on the list until now.

Bar mitzvah is a Jewish coming of age religious ceremony. "Mitzvah" is "commandment" in Hebrew. Girls have a bat mitzvah.

My maiden name is Goldenthal and I spent plenty of time in synagogues and at bar mitzvahs in my day. While my mom is Roman Catholic, my sons often tell me my Jewish mother gene is dominant.

I am pretty sure the Torah (code of Jewish law) does not require burlesque dancers gyrating to the tune of Christina Aguilera’s “Show Me How You Burlesque.”

These were not girls his age dancing, but women clad in gold fringe, micro mini-dresses shaking everything they have for twice what it’s worth.

Sam, in white tux, materialized from a massive chandelier to join the dancers in a choreographed number to “Dance Again” by Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull.

The video of the event has gone viral.

Try as I might there was nothing to compare with it on YouTube except the possible exception of Batzilla, a hilarious pre-bat mitzvah mash up of reality TV and mitzvah girls.

The boy had to practice the dance routine three hours every weekend for a month, but his religious study was a much greater time commitment.

Sam told GMA, “The party really was special, but the party is just a celebration. It’s really about the service, and it took two years to prepare for that. It’s a really big milestone in my life and it meant a lot to me, so I’m happy people are enjoying it.”

Seeing how extravagant this mom got for her son’s coming of age party, I imagine she is already choreographing his wedding. For that she’s gonna have to top a YouTube classic, the JK Wedding, which currently stands at 81 million views and has spawned a host of copycat wedding videos.

I believe that if anyone can top that, my money’s on a Jewish mother because they are goal oriented, loving, and unstoppable.

After all, what's the difference between a Rottweiler and a Jewish mother? Eventually, the Rottweiler lets go.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Horowitz bar mitzvah: So you think you can mitzvah?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/Modern-Parenthood/2013/0815/Horowitz-bar-mitzvah-So-you-think-you-can-mitzvah
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe