The Israel Ministry of Tourism happy with the visit of David Arquette

Earlier this month, David Arquette arrived in Israel to shoot scenes for an upcoming Travel Channel project, tentatively titled "Mile High." While in the Holy Land, Arquette, whose mother is Jewish, headed to Jerusalem's Western Wall, the holiest site in the world for Jews. On an apparent whim, the 40-year-old seized the moment and decided to have his bar mitzvah, right then and there.

A rabbi at the Western Wall helped Arquette bless the Torah and perform the ancient coming-of-age ritual, while cameramen snapped away.

The Israeli Ministry of Tourism could not have been happier.

"That was fantastic," says Uri Steinberg, director of North and South American development for the Ministry. "David Arquette's an A-lister, he's coming here for a show that's going to run on the Travel Channel, primetime, and we're able to make this connection with his bar mitzvah, which appeared in all the big newspapers the following day."

Arquette's bar mitzvah was also seen as an unexpected payoff from an initiative the ministry has been pouring no small amount of shekels into: Bringing celebs to Israel on glitzy, all-expenses-paid trips.

According to both the Ministry of Tourism and America's Voices for Israel, a special-interest group committed to bringing high-profile visitors to Israel, Arquette chose the Jewish state for an episode of his travel show on the advice of his co-producer Omar Epps. 

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