Bar Mitzvah Celebration
Object number
2021.11.1
Photographer
Michael Lomotey
- Object Information
Here we see a photograph taken at Yeshaya’s Bar Mitzvah. From left to right we see his uncle, Kwansah, Yeshaya, and his dad, Michael. Yeshaya stands in the middle holding a Torah, festooned in a breastplate and rimmonim. During the Bar Mitzvah, the celebrant is often called to read a Torah portion and/or deliver a speech in front of the congregation.
Both the celebrant and his relatives wear tallitot (jewish prayer shawls). To the left, his father, Michael, wears a blue kente tallit. This tallit is designed with Ghanaian kente patterns. The celebrant and his family are Ghanaian British Jews.
There is a Jewish community in the town of Sefwi Wiawso, Ghana. This community now goes by the name ‘The House of Israel’
There are many other Jewish communities across the African continent from the Ethiopian Beta Israel Jews to the Igbo Jews of Nigeria
- Hear from the donor
Why is this image important to you?
It captures a significant family moment, my son and brother together with myself, as part of ritual of my son taking on the mantle of Jewish responsibility and adulthood. Family and tradition. My dad loved it.
How does this image reflect your Jewish identity?
It gives a sense of belonging, a knowledge of a direct connection going back to Sinai. Jews as a diverse family.
What does Judaism mean to you?
I once read Judaism is an attitude to reality, I concur with this summation.
All of my life is centred on this aspect of my identity which is inextricably linked to all the other parts of how I identify; the scientist, the Black man in a white world, the parent, the brother, son, spouse, climate activist, Jew.
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