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Simon Rocker

Go forth and multiply

February 23, 2009 13:17

Addressing a barmitzvah boy at the New North London Synagogue on Shabbat, Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg recalled his trip during the week to West Wales. He had popped in to a local hairdressers' for a beard trim, where underneath the driers were two old dears in curlers, whose conversation went something like this:
"Youngsters grow up so fast these days," said Number One. "They know things at seven that I didn't know until I was 20."
"Yes," said her companion, "Just look at the story in the papers about the boy who became a father at 13."
"Mind you," her friend responded. "In the Jewish religion, when they are 13, they become adults."
Could this be a way to reverse the falling Jewish population?

February 23, 2009 13:17

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