Missing The Point

Here on Israellycool, I personally tend to focus on the Arab-Israeli conflict, pop culture and the weird and wonderful.

I also tend to avoid airing our dirty laundry. And by our, I mean Jews. Because, antisemites. Lots of them. And I prefer not to provide them with grist for their mill.

Alas, I am human and I have had a gutful of this kind of thing.

Businessman Nelson Peltz reportedly threw a bar mitzvah party for his twin sons that cost an estimated $2 million.

Hundreds of guests attended the May 14 bash for Zachary and Gregory Peltz at the Pierre, a luxury hotel on tony Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, the New York Post’s Page Six reported.

Among the activities were stilt walkers, two bands, five singers, a hockey rink, a basketball hoop and video games.

Several photographers and videographers were on hand to capture the action in the hotel ballroom, leading the 73-year-old Peltz to quip: “At my bar mitzvah there were two pictures taken.”

A bar mitzvah is when a Jewish boy turns 13 years-of age and is accountable for keeping the mitzvot – the Jewish commandments of the Torah. These commandments represent our obligations towards both man and G-d. By keeping the commandments we fulfill our task as the “chosen people” – which is not about being superior, contrary to what the antisemitic memes tell you, but rather about being a moral example to the world.

I am fully aware most Jews are not religiously observant and do not follow the Torah. I myself was not brought up that way either, and found that path on my own at the age of 19 (my version of rebellion I guess!) Be that as it may, I find it disconcerting that the essence of a bar mitzvah – taking on the responsibility to be a moral example – is completely lost to Jews like the Peltz’s. Heck, they are doing the exact opposite.

Nelson Peltz is a rich man. Filthy rich. But instead of using that gift for good, he is using it to show others just how filthy rich he is. And his twin bar mitzvah boys are the tool for achieving this goal.

If Nelson Peltz wanted to convey to his children the essence of being bar mitzvah, he could have had his sons doing something like this. Or this. Or this.

But this?

Jews like Nelson Peltz need to realize they were blessed with money for a reason: To make the world a better place – not their friends jealous.