In listings of professionals, the name Jay Kartzin appears
with the addition of the word "Rav." He was born in the
United States, and held a number of impressive positions,
such as the "spiritual guide" of the Variety Club in
Illinois, and the chairman of the Rabbinical Board of the
Broadcasting Committee of the Chicago Rabbinate. But he
gained most of his fame when he immigrated to Israel in
1985.
Kartzin settled in Jerusalem where he founded Religious
Services Unlimited. His organization conducts the largest
number of bar-mitzvah celebrations in Jerusalem. Those who
turn to him are generally tourists from all over the world,
looking to put on impressive ceremonies in Jerusalem. In
light of his great popularity, the Jerusalem Post has
even called him "The Bar Mitzvah King."
The service can be reached by phone, fax or e-mail. "We
receive requests from all over the world," he says about
himself, "From Hong Kong to Hawaii, from Venezuela to
Australia, and even from Mauritania."
Following are some of the requests which Kartzin publicizes.
As he says, they even make him laugh. Actually, they would be
very funny, if the reality they represent weren't so very
sad, a reflection of the ignorance of well-meaning Jews of
yiddishkeit:
* "We aren't particularly religious. Can we conduct a non-
religious bar-mitzvah?"
* "Can we rent a pair of tefillin for the event? It's
a pity to buy something which we will use only once."
* "My son doesn't like black. Can we buy blue or red
tefillin? Those are the colors he likes."
* "Can we hold the bar-mitzvah prior to its real date, so
that my son can have it at the Kosel. We've already
registered with you, but didn't tell you his real age. Can
you be flexible, and loosen the religious belt a bit?"
* "We are planning to visit Israel this summer, and want to
hold a large bar-mitzvah celebration. We have many relatives
and friends in Israel. We want to take the entire Kosel plaza
for this purpose. Is that too hard for you to arrange?"
* "My son doesn't know Hebrew. Therefore we want the prayer
service to be as brief as possible. How much of a discount do
we get for an abridged ceremony?"
* "We've already decided to hold a bar-mitzvah celebration
this summer. Now we are going over our list of honors. Not
all of our guests know Hebrew. Can you send us, by means of e-
mail, a list of the most important honors which don't require
a knowledge of Hebrew? Can a non-Jew receive an honor? We
also have an atheist guest. Which honor, which won't offend
anyone, can we accord him? Can we at least let him open the
doors of the aron kodesh? As you see, we're a very
special family."
* "My son heard that they'll throw candies at him at the bar-
mitzvah celebration. He's afraid of being hit by hard
candies, because he has friends who were injured by candies.
I know that you're the one who selects the candies. Can you
provide us only with marshmallows in this case. We'll feel
much calmer if we know that they'll only throw soft things at
him."
* "Our teacher noticed that Brian's bar-mitzvah falls on the
last day of Chanuka. There's a long Torah reading on that
day. Can you shorten it for us? We're Reform, and all of our
Torah readings are abridged. Thank you very much for your
understanding and flexibility. None of our guests will know
what we did anyway. All of them are from a non-religious
kibbutz, and they know even less than we do about what goes
on at the ceremony."
* "Our travel agent said that in order to conduct a bar-
mitzvah celebration at Metzada, there is no need for
tefillin. But we would very much like our son to put
on tefillin on his bar-mitzvah day on that historical
mountain. Please, tell us if he may put on tefillin at
a ceremony at Metzada. As a rabbi, your surely understand how
important it is for our son to put on tefillin at
least once in his life."
* "Very important guests are invited to our sons bar-
mitzvah, among them two grandfathers, a great-grandfather,
and two great-uncles. We need aliyos for all of them.
We know that in general, there are only three aliyos
on a weekday. But we ask you to make an exception to the rule
in honor of Randy's bar-mitzvah, because of the large group
of VIP's from our family who will be attending. We need at
least seven aliyos. If you can be considerate of us,
without stretching the halocho too much, we would be
very appreciative. If you can't do this, we would like you to
call three people to each aliya, and let them recite
the blessing together."
* "We saw a film of a bar-mitzvah celebration at the Kosel,
and noticed that in the end they lifted up the bar- mitzvah
boy on a chair, and danced with him. We would like to arrange
for such a procedure at Mark's bar-mitzvah. But we don't have
enough men to lift him up. We know that you arrange for a
minyan when the family is small. Can you also arrange
for some strong men to help us lift our son and dance with
him? If this costs more, we'll be happy to pay the
difference."
* "They warned us that beggars often interrupt the ceremonies
at the Kosel and disturb the guests. How can we keep them
away from our corner? Do you have any ideas?"
* "Is it possible to prepare a large sign with the name of
our family? We don't know many of our Israeli relatives who
will attend the ceremony, and it will be hard for them to
identify us. Such a sign will be very helpful. What size do
you suggest?"
* "We want to hold a small kiddush after the ceremony
at the Kosel. We heard that the authorities do not condone
serving food at the Kosel. But maybe we can do so
nonetheless? Just a small snack, soft drinks, liquor, cakes,
cookies, kugel, assorted fruits, pretzels, candies and
nosh. Can you take care of this yourself as a caterer,
or hire someone else who will do this?"
* "We know that it is customary to write a short prayer and
to place it in one of the Kosel's cracks. We want to do this
ourselves. Does the prayer have to be in Hebrew?"
* "We know that it is customary for the bar-mitzvah boy to
recite the blessing over bread at the meal after the
ceremony. Jason gets confused between the blessing over bread
and the blessing over wine. Can you e-mail him that you'll
stand next to him when he recites the blessing and help him?
This will calm him."
* "We would like to know if we can decorate our corner of the
Kosel, along the length of the mechitzah, with
balloons so that the atmosphere will be as festive as
possible? If this seems like a desecration of a sacred site,
what about flowers? We want our bar-mitzvah celebration to be
especially unique, and hope that you can help us."
* "We recently learned that there is a new custom at the
Kosel. Instead of placing small prayers in the Kosel's
cracks, people place money between the stones. Is that
correct? If so, how much money must we place there?"
* "We know that our son will have to lay tefillin at
the ceremony. Our son only wants to put on hand-
tefillin, and not head tefillin, because that
will ruin his hairdo, and will look bad in the film and the
pictures. Is this a problem?"
