Son's upcoming zoom bar mitzvah - help please!

amother

Sapphire

Thu, May 07 2020, 1:33 pm

Why don’t you just postpone the celebration to later time when everything is normal. Just do a meal with your family that lives in your house now. And put the tefilin etc.

tryinghard

Thu, May 07 2020, 2:14 pm

amother [ Beige ] wrote:

Just saw this on someone’s WhatsApp status. May be worth checking out. In addition I know someone who did a video for the bar mitzvah boy. Got friends, rebbe, relatives all to say Mazel Tov and put together in a beautiful video.

There have been a lot of these - ask all your friends and relatives to record a short "mazal tov shloimy" message (could be longer as well). Ask everyone to reach out to anyone well-known that they know (singers, Rabbanim, etc) - people are very happy to help make a bar mitzvah boy happy right now

amother

Teal

Thu, May 07 2020, 2:20 pm

My son's classmate did a drive through Bar Mitzvah. Obviously this depends where you live (in a city where not everyone drives it can be harder).
But basically the family dressed up, stood on their driveway and the classmates passed by in cars and got a cute bar mitzvah goody bag and were able to wish the boy mazel tov.
It's possible the family did more but this is what they did for the classmates.

keym

Thu, May 07 2020, 2:25 pm

amother [ Sapphire ] wrote:

Why don’t you just postpone the celebration to later time when everything is normal. Just do a meal with your family that lives in your house now. And put the tefilin etc.

We had a long conversation with a Rav just a few days ago.
He told us that there's a real inyan to start off a boy's shmiras hamitzvos with a special party (according what can be done safely and legally) to show the boy how meaningful it is to start being responsible for Torah Umitzvos.
This Rav told us to make as big of a party as possible with as many people as possible calling or Zooming in.
Most bar mitzvah boys do not have the "long-term vision" to wait patiently for months to years until it's safe to throw a "regular" party with grandparents.
He also recommended that we sign up for the
https://www.thebigbarmitzvah.com/
The bar mitzvah event eventually to "make up" for the lack.

OP, I just got an invitation. Regular cardstock, regular text but instead of dinner or Kiddush info, it says
The pshetl will be delivered on Sunday May 10 at 3pm. The call in number is xyz code abc.

amother

Sapphire

Thu, May 07 2020, 2:47 pm

keym wrote:

Makes sense