On April 28, 2012, Jacob Wertheimer, the grandson of boxing legend Muhammad Ali, became a bar mitzvah at Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Khaliah Ali-Wertheimer, Jacob's mother, was born and raised as a Muslim; her husband, Spencer Wertheimer, is Jewish. "No one put any pressure on Jacob to believe one way or another," she says. "He chose this on his own because he felt a kinship with Judaism and Jewish culture."

During the ceremony Muhammad Ali supported his grandson and looked intently at the Torah.