Simcha Snaps!

For JW3's B'Mitzvah year what could be more amazing than a giant photo album of Bar and Bat Mitzvah's from across the decades?!

The inspiration for this project was the collages my mum and her friends made of their children's B'nei Mitzvahs in the early and mid 1980s - what if you took that idea and used the inside and the outisde of JW3 as your gallery? We invited JW3 audience members, staff and volunteers to send us in their favourite photos from their simchas and added into the mix a project Ivor Baddiel had been working on collecting photos from 1970s simchas, as well as some photos from the Jewish Museum's collection.

The final touch was to ask Ivor and the artist Zoom Rockman to curate the submissions and decide where around, or on, the building the photos should sit. Most of the photos were taken in the UK or have a link to UK Jewry or to JW3. We have Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, progressive and orthodox, lavish parties and cosy get togethers. Touching, funny and often surprising, the album tells a story about the British Jewish community over the last a hundred or so years. So many shared memories, moments of joy, relatives and friends we remember, times we can never forget.

William Galinsky, Programming Director

I have so many happy memories of different JW3 events that I’ve attended and taken part in over the years. Talks, book launches, plays, concerts, being given the opportunity to put on my first major London show, Zoom Rockman’s Jewish Hall of Fame, back in 2023, and later hosting one of the first screenings of my animated film SURVIVOR, which is now streaming on ITVX.

Designing the special Bar Mitzvah brochure covers for JW3’s own Bar Mitzvah year has been a pleasure and co-curating this exhibition with Ivor Baddiel has been a lot of fun too. There’s also a nice coincidence in that it will be 13 years since my own Bar Mitzvah later this year. In fact, Ivor was standing right beside me on the bimah that day and even helped me write my speech. So it feels quite fitting that we’ve ended up working on this exhibition together.

Wishing Raymond, William, Greg, Michaela, Thamar, Lydia, Oliver and all the team a huge Mazel Tov, and looking forward to seeing what the next 13 years bring.

Zoom Rockman

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As featured on our summer brochure cover, Daniel Musikant presents the seating chart for his Bar Mitzvah party: "This was from December 1986 at the London Marriott Hotel in Duke Street. I enjoyed music and I had a record for my seating plan a record player for my barmitzvah cake, and guests were treated to an ice cream bar."

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Andrew Power, 1973 at Brixton Synagogue Hall (no longer in existence after joining with Streatham Synagogue in the 1980s).

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JW3's CEO at at NLPS, November 1985! "I remember my elderly Great Uncle Lou tried to slip a One Pound note into the pocket of my new suit at the luncheon in the shul hall after the service. He tried to slip it in subtly whilst talking to me...except it wasn't a real pocket, it was just a decorative flap to make the suit look more "grown up" I guess. He didn't know that and kept trying to force it in harder and harder until he actually ripped a hole in the jacket and shoved the note through into the lining of the suit, and then casually walked away, as cool as a cucumber!"

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Rachel Gaffin's Bat Mitzvah, June 1981. "I celebrated a year late, at 14, because in the summer of 1980 my family had moved from an area of South London with no Jews to NW London and suddenly I was immersed in Jewish culture and life for the first time. We joined Wembley Reform Synagogue, a tiny shul which met in a Church hall. My Bat Mitzvah took place in a little church hall opposite my house in Kenton and we celebrated with a lunch at home. I was surrounded by a small but warm and embracing community, many of whom I still count as friends today, 46 years later."

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Andrew Power, Brixton synagogue Hall, 1973

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Rachel Segal's brother Reuben's bar mitzvah at Etz Chaim Synagogue in Leeds, 1983. Rachel recalls loving her burgundy shoes and looking like "Victorian royalty", and her mother resembling Farrah Fawcett!

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Simon Carne, 1976, bar mitzvah'd at Stanmore United Synagogue, photo taken at Apollo Suites, Cockfosters.

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Harvey Kasin, November 1969 at the Galleon Club in central London, with his father

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Debra and Jonathan Wilton with their kids, Gabriella and Taylor Wilton on Taylor's Bat Mitzvah January 2022

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1952, Afghanistan - Joseph Ambalo, brother of Ziva, JW3's Visitor Services Manager

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Mark Bloom 1977 Quaglinos West End

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Harvey Kasin, November 1969 at the Galleon Club in central London, trying something new!

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This photo was shared by Andrew Klein of his brother Richard's Bar Mitzvah. Richard was born in 1964 and their parents took out an insurance policy for £1,000 because that's what they thought the entire Bar Mitzvah would cost - it ended up only covering the drinks! Photo taken in a back garden in Chigwell in the late 1970s

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"David Goldberg's Bar Mitzvah party July 1974, in Golders Green. David remembers: ""Everything was brown in 1974. My suit, my tie, the carpet the curtains. Brown, brown, brown! My dad hired a cheap photographer ( a customer from his retail shop in Barking). All the photos came out back to front (reversed) and all had darker tanned faces (our family was very pale and white). When he saw how all the photos came out he refused to pay the photographer."" In the photo L to R (which was really R to L): Grandma Lily, David Goldberg, Grandma Rosie"

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Mark Bloom 1977 Quaglinos West End

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Andrew Power, Brixton synagogue Hall, 1973

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20th century men in hats

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Harvey Kasin, November 1969 at the Galleon Club in central London.

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Winter 1949 at Notting Hill Synagogue, which closed in the 1990s. The service took place in a side room as the main part of the shul was leaking. During the war, it was damaged during an air raid (then repaired and reconstructed). Although rationing was still in place, Raymond does not remember it being an issue for the catering!

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Raymond Fellerman's second bar mitzvah took place at South Hampstead Synagogue on 14th December 2019, following a family Friday night dinner made by his daughter, Jayne Steiner. Raymond really enjoyed it, and appreciated Senior Rabbi Eli's encouragement.

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"I celebrated my Batmitzvah at the age of 66 together with my dear friend Carly Fertleman at Sukkat Shalom shul in Wanstead it was a wonderful and very moving and meaningful occasion and a way for me to affirm my joy in my being a proud Jewess."

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JW3's Trustee Gloria Abramoff stands here with her two sisters at Grosvenor Rooms, Willesden, Spring 1968. Gloria remembers, "I simply hated what I was made to wear, I wasn’t allowed to pluck my eyebrows and the ‘last dance’ always caused embarassement as nobody (except my loving father) danced with me. Other than that, coming from a big Bukhurian family, simchas were always riotous, joyful and plentiful; always loved the lemon water ice in-between the fish and the meat courses!" Left to right: Josephine, Lilian, Gloria Abramoff.

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Josh Howard's Bar Mitzvah at Alyth Reform Synagogue in the 2010s

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Box Office staff member Gillian's sister was the first set of bat mitzvah girls to ever have one at Dennington Park Road Synagogue now called Hampstead Synagogue, in 1966. Susan Tigner, front left. Gillian was a baby at the time, but remembers being told "They weren't going to do a party afterwards until mum realised everyone else was doing one, so she said "I'll roast a few chickens!" and sprang into action."

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JW3's Director of Marketing at Southend and Westcliff Hebrew Congregation, May 1999 - "I remember the party had a fly over from the red arrows. It was technically because it was the same weekend as the Southend Airshow but I like to think that they did it especially for me"

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1976 at Southgate in Old Farm av. The party was at grovesnor rooms

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JW3's staff member Lydia Boffey remembers stories about her great-grandfather Papa Alec, pictured here with his parents and sister to celebrate a Bar Mitzvah in East London 1928.

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Craig Cooper (brother of JW3 staff member Tracy) at his bar mitzvah with our maternal Grandma, Rachel Chajet. March 1987. Tracy remembers "We had the party in a marquee in our garden, it took 1 week to build and Thursday night/Friday morning when every table was set an almighty storm blew the whole thing down. Oy vey the stress - and somehow everyone pulled together worked around the clock and by the time we returned from Shul on the Saturday we were re-set and ready to party that night!"

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Mark Bloom 1977 Quaglinos West End

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Howard Robinson's party at Chingford Assembly Rooms 1978, BM was at Ilford United

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Amy Mendelsohn is JW3's Foodbank Coordinator. She's shared this photo taken in Johannesburg November 1965. Amy's mother, second from left front row Geraldine Gower (nee Fiansky) at her friend Irene Grinker's Bat Mitzvah.

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Mine was the penultimate Bar Mitzvah ever at Hornsey and Wood Green shul. My brother's was the last ever a year later and it closed after that (not because of our Bar Mitzvahs, I hasten to add). The reception (in the photo) was at Hornsey Town Hall. I remember the Yiddish poet Avrom Stencl attended and everyone was very excited about that (was I worried his presence might detract from my role as centre of attention? I can neither confirm nor deny). Also my Uncle Eliezer wanted to lead the prayres at the start of the service and was told he couldn't as he would need authority from the United Synagogue to dos o, so he got out his tsit tsit and said hehad authority from a higher power than even the United Synagogue. I remember thinking that was pretty cool.

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First Batmitzvah at Central Synagogue Great Portland Street 1983, of Gaby (Gabrielle) Shine and Danielle Roffe with Rabbi Cyril Shine z"l. "My memory is of this bat mitzvah being so radical and shocking at the time, even though it was just 2 girls saying some psukim/tfilot (not singing!) in shul on a Sunday afternoon and being addressed by the Rabbi with a d'var Torah (with a party afterwards)! And yet that set the ball rolling for the normalization of ba tmitzvahs in the United Synagogue/orthodox Anglo-Jewry. Nowadays its crazy to believe it was so earth shattering! My daughters, who attend a prominent Orthodox girls school in Jerusalem, actually layn every Monday and Thursday at their womens tfila in school. In 1983 we could not have even dreamed of such a thing."