This is from the August 18th Metropolitan Diary:
Dear Diary:
One recent afternoon, I was waiting in line at the silver counter at Tiffany. A woman ahead of me had just purchased a bracelet and was filling out a gift card. She looked up and asked the salesclerk, "How do you spell 'bar mitzvah'?" The salesclerk didn't hear her. I intervened.
"Bar mitzvah?" I asked.
She smiled and nodded.
"Didn't you buy a bracelet?" I asked.
"Why, yes I did," she answered.
"So it's for a girl?"
"That's correct," she said.
I explained: "Well, bar mitzvah is for a boy. Bas mitzvah is for a girl. So you should say 'Happy bas mitzvah.' " She thanked me, then I asked, "Do you know if they are Sephardic or Ashkenazic?"
Her face dropped. "Oh my, I have no idea. Does it matter?" she asked.
I replied: "No, not for the purpose of a gift. But if they are Ashkenazic, it's bas mitzvah, Sephardic is bat mitzvah."
"So how do I spell it?" she asked. I told her. She smiled and said: "I'm visiting from Milwaukee. Thank you for all this information, it's so interesting." She looked a bit sheepish and said, "I don't know any of this; I'm a Catholic."
I said, "So am I."
Surprised, she asked, "My goodness, how do you know all this information?"
I responded matter-of-factly, "I live here."
-Brian Honan
I've often tried to explain this phenomenon to non-New Yorkers, and sometimes to Japanese people, who seem to only half believe me.
Ironically, though, it has relevance here. My predecessor, Ben, was Jewish, and in his monthly column in the town newsletter, he often introduced Jewish holidays and customs. Many people in the town smile enthusiastically when I mention the now familiar words "Rosh Hashannah" or "Hannukah."
Even funnier, though, is that Ben and I are both living in Shitara, we figure that out of 5,000 people, we in Shitara might very well have the highest concentration of Jews in Japan.
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