Emanuel's son celebrates bar mitzva

White House chief of staff’s son celebrates at Western Wall.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Zach Emanuel W Wall 311 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Zach Emanuel W Wall 311
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
A bar mitzva ceremony for White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel’s son Zach and his nephew Noah took place Sunday at the southern wall excavations area near the Western Wall.
Both Emanuel's son and nephew read from the Torah portion of the week and gave D'var Torah.
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Twenty to thirty well dressed friends and relatives attended the ceremony, including Catholic relatives of Emanuel's wife Amy and former Ambassador to the US Itamar Rabinovich.
Bar Mitzvah celebrations were scheduled to be held elsewhere as only the ceremony itself took place at the wall
The ceremony took place after police obtained a restraining order against right-wing activists who intended to heckle Emanuel.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Baruch Marzel and Noam Federman were forbidden to comewithin 1000 meters of Emanuel, who they consider a traitor againstIsrael.
In response to a petition by Ben-Gvir on Thursday in which he asked theJerusalem District Court to prevent the bar mitzva from taking place atDavidson Center near the Wall because the center lacked a license, theJerusalem municipality said no license was needed because only prayerswould take place.
Ben-Gvir said he was overjoyed by the municipality’s response, becausehe interpreted it to mean that no catering or music would be allowed atthe bar mitzva.
The Emanuel family spent Shabbat in Jerusalem, where they prayed onFriday night at the Orthodox egalitarian minyan, Shira Hadasha, in theGerman Colony neighborhood.