David Arquette has his bar mitzvah at 40 in Jerusalem while filming travel show; learn more about his Jewish roots

David Arquette has had quite a week! After being separated for nearly two years, he finally filed for divorce from Courteney Cox, and he finally became a man! At least a man in the eyes of Judaism.

While filming a Jerusalem segment for his new Travel Channel show Mile High Sunday (May 11,) David attended a bar mitzvah, and took up an offer to have his own at the age of 40 (traditionally these happen at age 13.)

While David’s father was born Catholic, and has since adopted the Muslim faith, his grandmother is a Jewish Holocaust refugee in Poland.

hmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi who performed the ceremony (which included a Torah reading, and placing phylacteries, also called Tefillin, which are leather boxes containing Torah scrolls,) “He was very emotional, saying he was happy to be part of the chain of the Jewish people. I’m very pleased to see a man who is returning to his roots.”

The Scream star tweeted “I had my Bar Mitzvah today at the wall. Finally I’m a man.”

The wall he’s talking about is often called the Wailing Wall, the Western Wall, or the Kotel, and is one of the most sacred, if not the most sacred site for people of the Jewish faith. It is the remnant of an ancient wall on the western side of the Temple Mount.

Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvahs are religious rites of passages for Jewish youth (boys @ 13, and girls as 12,) because they coincide with puberty. According to Jewish beliefs, boys become accountable for their actions at age 13, (girls a year earlier, is no surprise,) and before that their parents are held accountable. I guess this explains why David’s behavior has often been less than mature! Better late accepting responsibility for yourself than never.

While filming in Isreal, David also took a cooking class in Jerusalem, shopped at the Machane Yehuda market, fished in Jaffa, and took a turn as a DJ in a Tel Aviv nightclub.

Despite the separation and divorce, David and Courteney have remained best friends, and co-parent their 8-year-old daughter Coco. The were married in 1999, split in 2010, and soon after that David sought treatment for alcohol abuse.

Weird fact about this story: David mistakenly told a reporter he was 41, but he’s actually 40. He admitted his error on Twitter.
Be our BFFs on Twitter, Facebook!, and Google +