Capturing Your Special Bar or Bat Mitzvah Day
Your Family’s traditions | What to tell your Bar or Bat Mitzvah Photographer
Family Heritage | Handing it Down
Some families are fresh and new to their daughter’s bat mitzvah or their son’s bar mitzvah. It’s their first mitzvah as a family for their oldest child, and they are creating new traditions. Besides, there’s always a first one, yes? That’s amazing!
Some families have generational experience with bar/bat mitzvahs — their parents, their grandparents. That’s how history works, it’s who comes before us.
We always ask if there are items of significance, or sentimental value, or historical importance, that we need to be aware of at your family’s special day. Let me explain.
When I first asked this question at a bar mitzvah and a family casually mentioned the talit (prayer shawl) that the father wore was 150 years old, I gasped out loud. “What? Where is it?” I asked. “Bring it to me. May I please photograph it carefully and then return it to you in a few moments?” My words tumbled out and I was so excited to see it up close. They kindly obliged. I was thrilled to capture that history in a few closeups to preserve it for continuing family generations.
Families have shown me their parents’ talit, yad, heirloom jewelry, prayer books, kippa, candelabra. We have photographed family wine cups, including cups made by artists for their special day, a yad from another country on the other side of the world, a talit for a bat mitzvah that was worn by 5 cousins, a prayer book handed down from a grandfather, a grandmother’s necklace.
So whether you are starting a new tradition with your family, or continuing one, we can’t wait to be part of it and document what’s important to you.
