Pacific Palisades Bat Mitzvah | Kehillat Israel

It was back to our most visited 2011 temple Saturday, Kehillat Israel in Pacific Palisades, for Madeline's Bat Mitzvah. She did a stand-out job, singing "Micha Mocha," and "L'dor V'Dor," chanting from the torah and wittingly talking about becoming "a woman," in a terrific speech. "Mazel Tov, Maddie!

Kehillat Israel Pacific Palisades by Graham & Graham Photography | 310-594-8074

Kehillat Israel Pacific Palisades by Graham and Graham Photography | 310-594-8074

Pacific Palisades Bar/Bat Mitzvah Photographer | Kehillat Israel

We first met Brooke in Pacific Palisades at Temescal Canyon Gateway Park, one of our favorite hiking spots, to photograph her for the Bat Mitzvah reception sign-in board. It was a magical spot with perfect lighting, and we couldn’t have been happier with the results. We then met up again a few weeks later for her Pacific Palisades Bat Mitzvah at Kehillat Israel, our home away from home in 2011, our 6th visit of the year–with two more on the books in the coming months.
As always, lighting was amazing in the KI sanctuary and everything went perfectly–well, almost perfectly. There was a power outage moments before the service was to begin, but luckily KI had a generator they were able to drag into the sanctuary for amplification, and everyone got to hear Brooke and family without a hitch. And by the time the reception began in the social hall hours later, power was back to normal.

Pacific Palisades Bar Mitzvah | Kehillat Israel

Last Saturday was no. 5 for us in 2011 at Kehillat Israel in Pacific Palisades, the reconstructionist temple blocks from the village, and this weekend it was Benicio's turn at the bima. Here's a fun video montage we put together of highlights from the service and party.

Kehillat Israel Bar Mitzvah | Pacific Palisades Bar Mitzvah Photographer

For week 3 of our 6-week winter stint at Pacific Palisades' Kehillat Israel, we were on hand to photograph Caleb's Bar Mitzvah at the synagogue in the round.

These shots are all by Sam Graham of Graham and Graham Photography.
The first image is of Caleb at the moment in the reconstructionist service when all the kids throw candy at him--their way of celebrating that he has gotten all the way through his torah reading.
Below, Caleb goes over his material with Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben.

Afterwards, all the guests stepped into the social hall next to the sanctuary for a rock and roll themed Bar Mitzvah bash, MC'd by the great Bino of 1-800DJ.com



Finally, here's Caleb with one of his special Blue concoctions made up for the big day.

Kehillat Israel Bar Mitzvah | Pacific Palisades Bar Mitzvah

If it's spring, 2011, we're in Pacific Palisades. For the last two Saturdays, we've been at Kehillat Israel, the reconstructionist temple in Pacific Palisades, for a series of 6 Bar and Bat Mitzvahs in a row.
We met a new client, she liked what she saw, told her friends, and hence--multiple visits to one of the most spacious synagogues in Los Angeles--and did we mention the amazing natural light?