Positive Byproduct

by Rabbi Tuvia Teldon

Thank you for sharing some great ideas for future benefit dinners in today’s economy (“Kissing The Gala Dinner Goodbye?,” June 19).

Perhaps the same attention can be given to low cost, creative and meaningful ways to celebrate bar and bat mitzvahs. My hope is that the end of extravagant bar/bat mitzvah celebrations will be a positive byproduct of the recession. Parents who can afford it would be much better advised to take their whole family (and extended family, if they can do all this without going in debt) to Israel. That will help insure that the bar/bat mitzvah experience will be more Jewish and meaningful, and the effect will last longer. I’m confident there are other less expensive ideas that can accomplish this goal to varying degrees, and can become widely accepted.

Director Chabad Lubavitch of Long Island

Westchester Jewish Conference

Westchester’s Jewish Community Relations Organization