Believing his wife lost at sea, Israel remarries a scheming gold-digger. Shock, tears and laughs abound when his beloved wife returns on the eve of her son's bar mitzvah after a ten-year absence. Starring Yiddish theater superstar Boris Thomashefsky in his only film performance, this musical melodrama is a masterwork of shund, the bread and butter of the Yiddish theater."

... Pays tribute to religious and theatrical traditions while surprisingly bursting their bonds in moments of cinematic inspiration ... lightning bolts of cinematic revelation suggest the pliable, accessible modernism of the cinema." - The New Yorker

"The new discovery and restoration of Bar Mitzvah should be cause for aficionado celebration ... If "Jewish film," and Jewish culture at large, are about legacy, then this is required viewing, an immersion in remembrance of the forefathers" - Village Voice

-- The Center for Jewish Films