Help from Jewish Mamas

I would give a check or cash. It's a fairly customary gift. And I would give whatever you can spend (ideally between $50-100) in multiples of 18. In Hebrew, letters and numbers are the same (like Roman numerals) and the numbers 1-8 spell the word "life" so it's a symbolic number. So, for example, I got a lot of $72 checks. (You can make a little note on the bottom that says 18+18+18...)

If you are uncomfortable giving cash, perhaps you want to consider a gift card in a similar amount to a store where there is a wide variety to chose from - I liked the person who suggested amazon. Good luck.

you could do an amazon.com gift card, you can download songs off of there, also, or a best buy gift card. I'm around a lot of boys, and they all love best buy.

It doesn't matter that this boy's family is influentual in the Jewish community, so don't focus on that. It boils down to two things:
1) how close you are with the family (which doesn't seem like you are too close).
2) what you can afford to give

I am Jewish, but haven't been to a bar mitzvah in decades. But even decades ago when myself and others were bar/bat mitzvah'd, people gave way too much money (in my opinion). Close friends of the family would give at least $100 check. I remember classmates gave anywhere from $15-25 check. I feel that people treat bar/bat mitzvah's like they are weddings, because a lot of people tend to give as much as they would a wedding, and I think that is very wrong to give a 13 year old kid so much money for participating in a service and reading Hebrew! Anyway, I am not a good person to give you advice on this b/c I would give a check or giftcard for $20 or $25, but a lot of people might say that isn't enough. Then again, you are not close with the family so I think that is plenty. Hope this helped a little, but definately ask more people!

That is an honor that you have been invited to attend his bar mitzvah. I would get a special bar mitzvah card and include a message of congratulations and thanks (for helping your daughter). I would think a gift card of $50 would be appropriate- you could use an AMex or VISA gift card which could be used anywhere, however, they usually have a $4 (or so) fee added on or the amazon.com or i-tunes card would also be good choices.

I was told when I pondered the same problem, to give money in multiples of $13. That made it easier to decide how much to give. The bar mitzvah we attended was a lot of fun and very educational.