Bar Mitzvah’s are a Jewish tradition, celebrating a boy’s coming of age.

Although Sam Horowitz had his Bar Mitzvah in November 2012, his burlesque-themed celebration video only recently surfaced on Jewish website, Kveller. Horowitz’s celebration took place at the Omni Hotel in Dallas, and has been described by the Dallas Observer as “unarguably the craziest entrance to a religious celebration and ceremony”.

The video received mostly negative comments, except for this. Raquel Pomerantz Gershom commented:

Shame on you commenters for standing in judgement of someone you haven’t met. Sam’s family gives millions of dollars to their shul and to the Jewish community at large, and are very involved in Jewish pursuits and took Sam to Israel before his bar mitzvah where he did mitzvah projects working with needy children. In my Sunday school class, he took great pride in leading prayers which he had learned for his bar mitzvah. Was his party “over the top”? Sure. But, kudos to his parents for letting him follow his passion for dance and fashion and drama. And don’t be so quick to judge without seeing the bigger picture. He is a great kid and yes, he worked as hard on learning his Maftir, haftarah AND chanting shacharit as he did on his dance steps.

[Source: Youtube, The Dallas Observer]