Bar mitzvah Web site’s a big hit for Moraga youth

Like many bright ideas, Josh Israel's was hatched around the family dinner table.

And like many breathless plans concocted between adolescent boys and their dads, this one had Josh's mom dead set against it.

As 13-year-old Josh recalls, his family was talking in January about the wording for the invitation to his July 3 bar mitzvah at Temple Isaiah in Lafayette. He and his dad suddenly thought of honoring the event with a personal Web site.

"We just decided it would be a neat idea to incorporate something with computers," said Josh, a computer whiz who will enter eighth grade this fall at Moraga's Joaquin Moraga Intermediate School. Josh's father, Steve, heartily endorsed the plan, which isn't surprising since he heads a software consulting firm.

"I said, 'Great. It's a great idea -- no one's done it,'" said Steve Israel.

But Josh's mother, Jodie Israel, wasn't so enthralled. "I just thought, 'It's not going to work,'" she said, fearing that a Web site was a risky and time-consuming undertaking as they began a lengthy punch list of projects for their son's forthcoming big day.

But son and father persevered and on May 21, the Web site at http://www.gatewaygroup.com/josh "went live" on cyberspace.

The site's home page describes what a bar mitzvah is and accompanying pages provide color pictures of Josh, detailed directions and maps to the temple and party, and a summary of Josh's Torah portion.

Josh's 150 guests were directed to the Web site by the printed invitations mailed out that same day.

The Web site's debut had some tense moments, though. It wasn't until five minutes before Jodie was set to drop the invitations off at the post office that the family got outside confirmation that the site was up and running.

Moments earlier, panic struck when a family friend was unable to call up the site. "My mom just went berserk," recalls Josh. As it turned out, the glitch was the result of the friend's computer and not the Israels' Web site.

Conceived by Josh and his dad and coded by a consultant at the elder Israel's firm, the site took several weeks of planning.

"We drew some pictures, we changed it a couple of times" and spent lots of time trying to get the Web pages to match the shade of green in Josh's printed invitations, said Steve.

At first, Josh began reading a Web design book and attempted to do his own coding to create the pages. "I just didn't have the time," he lamented, citing the obligations of schoolwork, bar mitzvah study and his Boy Scout troop.

"He's the idea man, he's the product developer," Steve said of his son.

The Web site drew several hundred hits by interested browsers and lots of "very good feedback," according to Jodie.

"We checked it at school and everybody liked it," said Josh.

Friends said they appreciated the chance to read ahead of time about the ceremony and Torah portion. "Out-of-town relatives, who'd never seen him, got to see his picture," said Jodie.

And many guests wound up printing out the directions from the Web site after misplacing the hard copies mailed to them.

Said Jodie: "I think the Web site, even though I was against it from the beginning, made everyone who was invited to the bar mitzvah feel part of it."

Viewing the site as a work in progress, the Israels plan to scan in digital photos of Josh on bar mitzvah day and include an audiotape of his speech.

"We'll definitely keep it up for the rest of the year," said Steve. The Israels also plan to post another Web site when Josh's younger brother, Michael, has his bar mitzvah in two years.

But this high-tech family draws the line at cyberspace thank-you notes. Josh is handwriting all his letters of thanks.

"Even though I'm a technologist, a handwritten note is very nice and shows how much you care about what they've given you," said his father. As for an e-mail message, "that's not as personal."