Carl Reiner, z”l Answer

07/06/2020

B. Reiner noted that he had “a bootleg bar mitzvah.” While his friends (Lenny, Shlermy, David, Marty and Mutty) all went to Hebrew School for many years, he only began bar mitzvah lessons a few months before his 13th birthday, when his father hired a rabbi to teach him. As Reiner wrote in his autobiography, I Remember Me, “All I can remember about the rabbi was his long, white beard, his healthy paunch, and the dirty toothpick he took from his vest pocket at the start of each lesson. He used the weathered toothpick to pick his teeth and to point to letters and words in the prayer book.”

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