[DebbieJFSG]

So it turns out that my husband's grandfather had two Bar Mitzvahs!! The two dates/two events thing is becoming a theme....

Apparently my husband's great-grandfather belonged to the sephardic synagogue because that was how he was raised (family originally from Turkey) BUT for business purposes he ALSO belonged to the ashkenazi synagogue. After my husband's grandfather (now 94 years old!) had his Bar Mitzvah at the sephardic synagogue, one of the machers in the ashkenazi one asked why he wasn't called to the Torah there, too....so they scheduled a date and he did it all over again.

The funny thing here is that my brother also had two Bar Mitzvahs - although for an even more ridiculous reason.... My parents were divorced and on such bad terms that they couldn't agree on how to handle things, so they each arranged a Bar Mitzvah for him - one week apart. For years my mother insisted hers was the "real" one because it came first and my father insisted his was the "real" one and my mother's was only a dress rehearsal. My poor brother had to learn two parshas, just like my stepfather had to (see previous post) and my husband's grandfather.

My husband ALSO had two Bar Mitzvah dates, but only learned one parsha. Since he didn't learn the FIRST one in time for the event, they had to postpone it six months! (He's not very proud of this story....)

With all this family history, it makes me wonder if we should be planning two different dates!!!!