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Bonus Issue: Celebrating ROTB

12118824_10153864571976412_5405333961577696904_nBonus Issue

I want to share a celebration! The meaningful Bar Mitzvah service I ran for James Franco got a glowing write up in the Jewish Journal.
This experience got me thinking about a lot of things. (One of which is that I have been thinking about celebrity and how come some people get picked up by various media. Like, why in the interview did I mention only these five Religion-Outside-The-Box members:

  • Max & Elizabeth (who are sailing)
  • Philip (the priest from Malta)
  • James & Ben (recently wed in Palm Springs)?

Even without the article explicitly mentioning you by name, I hope you can be excited. The good work of nourishing spiritual hunger is both being done well and reported on well.
With love,
Rabbi Brian


 

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Rabbi Brian Zachary Mayer has helped plenty of students prepare for bar or bat mitzvah ceremonies, and, in some ways, the one he officiated on Oct. 3 was no different. It involved months of serious study, a special bar mitzvah speech and even a mitzvah project.
“It was like any other bar mitzvah — except not,” the Portland-based rabbi said in a phone interview with the Journal.
The “not” is because the bar mitzvah boy in question was 37-year-old actor James Franco (“127 Hours,” “The Interview,” “Pineapple Express,” “Freaks & Geeks”).