Local newspaper Hashavua described it as a “great embarrassment” when a 13-year-old boy who was about to read from the Torah to mark his bar mitzvah was found to be wearing a tallit (Jewish prayer shawl) with “Christian” inscriptions.

A spokesman for the Merom Israel Synagogue in Bat Yam where the event was taking place said the family was not particularly religious, so did not notice the “Christian” wording.

According to the synagogue, the entire bar mitzvah would have been for naught had the boy read from the Torah while wearing this particular prayer shawl.

The synagogue provided the boy with a replacement prayer shawl and the service continued.

Religious figures in Bat Yam are now hunting for the store that sold the prayer shawl, after the boy’s family refused to get involved by revealing its name.

The report did not say which “Christian” scripture or inscription was discovered on the prayer shawl, but numerous stores in Israel sell “Messianic” tallits.