Word: mitzvah
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...most important factor, Snyder suggests, is not how much Jews drink but how. From the eighth day of his life, when he is circumcised, the Orthodox Jewish boy is surrounded by religious ceremonies (Redemption of the Firstborn, Bar Mitzvah) that involve the drinking of wine. In addition to holy days, each Sabbath brings three Orthodox rituals involving wine. Excess is avoided because "drinking thus occurs in the presence of the most powerful sanctions in Orthodox Jewish life." If so, does drunkenness increase among Jews as they leave the Orthodox faith? Snyder's statistics indicate that there is a slight...
...prejudices, social gradations, e.g., West End Avenue is a worse address than Central Park West; mothers run a secret service on eligible suitors as efficiently as any conducted in Junior League territory. Most amusing and effective are Wouk's accounts of big family occasions, e.g., the mammoth bar mitzvah* with its ostentatious but somehow touching banquet that finds Marjorie's brother making a grand entrance to the strains of Pomp and Circumstance, flanked by a cauldron of flaming brandy for the grapefruit appetizers...