Actor David Arquette — you might know him best from the Scream films — celebrated his bar mitzvah Monday on a 28-year delay while filming a segment of a travel show in Israel.
According to the Associated Press, Arquette was an onlooker of the ceremony of a teenage boy and was asked if he wanted a ceremony of his own. He went for it:
“I had my Bar Mitzvah today at the wall…” the “Scream” actor said Monday on Twitter. “Finally I’m a man.”
After not identifying with his Jewish roots for nearly his entire life, the notion that participating in this ancient ritual makes Arquette a man is ridiculous.
It begs the question of whether or not he considered himself a man after other non-religious milestones. Arquette has a successful career in the entertainment industry, has a child, and just days before the impromptu ceremony, filed for divorce from estranged wife Courtney Cox. In a secular culture, these events would most definitely qualify Arquette for manhood.
Learning more about one’s heritage is admirable, but going through the motions of an ancient ceremony and claiming it has made one more of a man doesn’t help progress a culture already entrenched with patriarchy and religious dominance.
