Johan’s bris was not what we had imagined in most respects.  Some things were as we expected, such as having a large gathering, adapting the ceremony script from that of friends and family, and giving our child a name.  The fact we would be doing it via Zoom with just us and the mohel in our home was not something we had ever imagined prior to the onset of the pandemic.

Because it was about two months in to the pandemic at that time, doing Jewish ritual online was a pretty new experience for everyone.   Fortunately, we weren’t the absolute first people to try it, and we had seen some articles online with tips on how to make things run smoothly.  Another advantage of being among the first to do ritual via Zoom is that Johan got some media attention quite early on in his life.

Johan’s first media appearance was fairly conventional for an eight day old.  A writer for the Atlanta Jewish Times was looking for stories of how life cycle events were impacted by the onset of the pandemic, and Allison’s mother responded to the writer’s call.  Emails were exchanged and Allison gave a phone interview as well.  Our story was written up, along with several others, in mid-June for an edition of the AJT that appeared both in print and online.  

The less conventional media attention for Johan’s bris came via The Tony Kornheiser Show.  Oren has been a regular listener to the program for over 10 years when it was broadcast on various radio stations in the DC area (it is now exclusively a podcast).  Each show ends with Tony reading emails submitted by listeners, and for many years, people have sent in wedding invitations, birth announcements, and the like to be read in this segment.

About a week after Johan’s bris, Tony and his son Michael (who is a regular on the program) were discussing being invited to a Zoom Bar Mitzvah and were wondering how such an event might work.  Oren decided this discussion created an opportunity to write the type of “smart and funny” email that usually gets read on the show, and on June 10th, the email was read.  (You can hear a recording of how it was read on the podcast with some ad-libbing by Tony, or read the original email text below.)

In reference to Michael’s wondering about how a Zoom Bar Mitzvah might work, we did a Zoom bris for my son last week.  Think about that one for a moment…

 

OK, the truth is we let the mohel into our home and he, my wife, and I all wore masks, but the rest of our guests all had to join via Zoom.  Definitely not how we were expecting to welcome our little one to the covenant to say the least.

 

I look forward to introducing Johan (7 lbs 9.5 oz and a sneaky long 21 inches at birth) to the pod, though I must admit, his mother AKA the person to whom I am related by marriage would probably prefer otherwise.  

 

Oren Hirsch

Washington, DC

At this point, one might think that would be the end of the discussion of Johan’s bris on this particular podcast, but that turned out not to be the case.  On July 1st, this email was read during the Mailbag segment:

When Oren played the clip for Allison, the shared reaction was that although the circumstances were far from ideal, we were thrilled that the story of Johan’s bris made a priest in Texas laugh and tell his congregation about it!   Presumably, we also gave joy to countless people far beyond those who actually logged in to the Zoom event as a result of the story being read on this popular podcast.  Again, it is not what we expected by any means, but looking back on it one year later, we feel pretty good about what we managed to do despite the circumstances.