Marc Ellis is taking a break, so it falls to me to chronicle the mores and lifestyles of empire Jews.
Sam Horowitz’s ecdysiastic bar mitzvah celebration in Dallas last November is all over the internet thanks to a blog called Kveller, which published it like it was cute. “The Dallas Observer called the professionally choreographed routine at the Omni Hotel ‘unarguably the craziest entrance to a religious celebration and ceremony,’ which is unfair, seeing as it’s unarguably the craziest entrance to anything ever,” Gawker writes.
Here’s another video from Sam Horowitz, said by Haaretz to be the invitation to his bar mitzvah, set to the tune, Call me maybe. There are scenes of him practicing his Torah reading wearing a talis, prancing around some Dallas mansion and outside a Jewish center in Dallas.
he can be seen dancing in front of the JCC of Dallas, endowed by his grandparents, Steve and Carol Aaron.
Also a glimpse of a religious sanctuary, with a man mouthing a line from the song.
I learned about Sam Horowitz from the same friend who told me about another Empire bar mitzvah boy, Andrew Zucker, son of CNN president Jeff Zucker.
Last week the NYTimes broke the story that NJ Senate hopeful Cory Booker’s dubious but entitled tech startup, Waywire, had on its advisory board Andrew, 15, who was given stock options. Andrew Zucker resigned from Waywire after the Times story came out; CNN announced the news. NY Post:
The rich kid’s consulting career as a “millennial adviser” ended just hours after it was revealed that he had been granted stock options in the firm co-founded by Booker, the Newark mayor who polls show is a shoo-in for the US Senate after a special election.
“Despite the fact that his affiliation with Waywire was extremely limited to only an advisory capacity, in order to avoid even the perception of a conflict, Jeff’s son has resigned from the Waywire advisory board, effective immediately,” CNN said in a statement.News of Andrew’s stock deal lit up social media yesterday, with critics on Twitter branding it a “gross nepotism alert.”
Young Zucker was last in the news when his parents threw him a $250,000 bar mitzvah at the Four Seasons.
Of course rich people have behaved badly for as long as there has been money, but I feel a Jewish embarrassment in these incidents. We used to stand for something else in American culture beside gross arriviste entitlement. Of course that was when we were outsiders. Whatever happened to noblesse oblige?
“Of course rich people have behaved badly for as long as there has been money, but I feel a Jewish embarrassment in these incidents. We used to stand for something else in American culture beside gross arriviste entitlement. Of course that was when we were outsiders. ”
So, two rich kids had over the top Bar Mitzvahs, and this is somehow – what – reflective of all Jews? This is “what we stand for?” This is only what we stand for if you think like a bigot.
Because, clearly, you would apply the same standard to, say, an over-the-top sweet-16 or communion party by a Christian family, right?
Media coverage of this Bar Mitzvah is interesting. Contrary to what Hophmi is trying to claim, if this kind of profane and over-the-top spectacle took place at a Christian ceremony for the child of the elites, it would be openly ridiculed. Imagine such an event for the child of an evangelical leader, for example. The same outlets like Gawker who are good-naturedly laughing about this Bar Mitzvah would be openly ridiculing its Christian counterpart.
And by the way, why isn’t Gawker condemning this Bar Mitzvah as sexist? Issues of feminism and sexism are normally top of the agenda for Gawker. The fact that they aren’t tearing into it for being sexist is highly revealing.
The nouveau riche abound in this country in more than just Jews.
Unfortunately too much of the ‘classes’ whose boats got ‘lifted by the tide’ didnt have any class to put in the boat and bring along with them.
Our ‘new’ society represents the decline in the concept and practice of noblesse oblige .
Too bad.
See also:
“Philip Green gives £4 million party for his son’s bar mitzvah” (The Telegraph)
I agree with hophmi. In America, ridiculing the excesses of the rich is a pastime that can be enjoyed by everyone. In America, those who inherit their wealth, who claim entitlement on the basis of anything other than their own merit, are the outsiders. Rags to riches to rags again in three generations.
“Whatever happened to noblesse oblige?” Well, it went out with nobility and the British Empire. It is replaced by good citizenship, being a good steward of the important institutions we inherit from prior generations, even as we improve upon them or replace them with better ones. In your case, Phil, it is embodied in speaking truth to power, regardless of consequences. “There is a natural aristocracy among men,” said Thomas Jefferson. “The grounds of this are virtue and talent.”
It’s not easy for rich people to instill virtue in their children.