Le petit-fil de Mohamed Ali (Cassius Clay) fait sa bar mitzvah

"Je suis née musulmane et ai été élevée en tant que musulmane. Mais je ne suis pas pour la religion organisée. Je préfère la spiritualité à la religion. Mon mari est juif. Personne n'a mis de pression sur Jacob pour qu'il à croie à l'une ou l'autre religion. Il a fait ce choix parce qu'il avait un lien de parenté avec le judaïsme et la culture juive", a déclaré sa mère Khaliah Ali-Wertheimer. Mohamed Ali a assisté à la cérémonie et a soutenu le choix de son petit-fils Jacob.

Source: Forward

We’ve called former world heavyweight boxing champ Muhammad Ali “The Greatest,” “The People’s Champion” and “The Louisville Lip.” Now we might want to also call him “Zaidy” — and a very proud one at that.

The boxing news site “The Sweet Science” reports that the Muslim Ali’s grandson recently became a bar mitzvah. The 13-year-old boy, Jacob Wertheimer, is the son of Ali’s daughter Khaliah Ali-Wertheimer and her husband, Spencer Wertheimer.

“I was born and raised as a Muslim,” Ali-Wertheimer said. “But I’m not into organized religion. I’m more spiritual than religious. My husband is Jewish. No one put any pressure on Jacob to believe one way or another. He chose this on his own because he felt a kinship with Judaism and Jewish culture.” Accordingly, Jacob had his bar mitzvah ceremony at Philadelphia’s Congregation Rodeph Shalom on April 28.

Jacob’s mother also shared that the bar mitzvah’s theme was a celebration of diversity and inclusiveness (that sure beats Star Wars, sports or actor Max Greenfield’s SNL theme). “My father was supportive in every way. He followed everything and looked at the Torah very closely. It meant a lot to Jacob that he was there,” she said.