Bar Mitzvah

Dad's Memories:

The greatest social event of my adolescence was of course my Bar Mitzvah[1] which happened to fall on New Year's Eve 1927. As usual in those days the religious ceremony took place on Saturday morning. There were four of us reading from the Torah. Again this was the custom in those days that up to four boys[2] were Bar Mitzvah on one Saturday. One of us was a boy from an orphanage who had to be supported by the others and made to feel part of a family. After the services[3] during which I said the blessings for both Torah portion and the Haftarah and read from the Torah, there was a big reception at our home for an enormous number of uninvited guests. In the evening we had a sit-down dinner for over fifty guests, friends and relatives from all over Germany. Martha did much of the cooking, but there was also another cook and some serving help. It was a real wingding. Father wanted it this way because he knew that this was the only major affair that he would ever host since he had no daughters to give weddings for. At midnight we had champagne and the usual New Year's stuff to toast in 1928.

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1. Got a gramophone (maybe from friend of Mother's, Amy Ritter) which his father had not wanted to get, but he really wanted. Relented and then couldn't wait to show him. Crank-up device. Schubert's Military Marches one of first records.

2. Three or four other boys Bar Mitvah'd at the same time.

3. Martha had wanted to do the party, but the parents hired a cook for the evening. Father's lab technician played the piano.

4. Nine silver pencils received as gifts.

5. Franz Apt gave him Schnitzler's five-volume books.

6. Got a fancy desk from the Parents.

7. Was Dad's actual Jewish birth date.

8. Second cousin stayed with them from Berlin. Fritz Lefebvre.

Notes:

1. Interesting that in Germany (at least, at that time), the ceremony was called a "Konfirmation". As part of the Reform movement's goal towards being gender neutral, the Bar Mitzvah was changed to a Confirmation, but it also moved that ceremony to 15- or 16- year olds. Obviously, here it was still 13-year-old, and reading was done from the Torah and Haftarah.

2. Having found the Gazette above, we now can know the names of the co-celebrants: Adolf Lange (the "orphan," listed with his deceased ("verst.") parents names), Gerhard Ralisch, and Franz Smoschewer. [I haven't found anything else about them. Perhaps an older sister of Franz who emigrated to the U.S.]

3. As shown, the services were at the New Synagogue, which was burnt down during Kristallnacht (November 9-10, 1938).