A bar mitzvah or 'coming of age' ceremony in Israel had to be halted after a rabbi spotted that the 13-year-old boy was wearing a prayer shawl with Christian inscriptions.

A local newspaper, Hashavua, described it as a 'great embarrassment' when the inscriptions were discovered on the prayer shawl or tallit during the service, at the Merom Israel Synagogue in Bat Yam.

A spokesman for the synagogue said the family was not particularly religious, so did not notice the Christian words in the inscription. The synagogue told Israel Today that had the bar mitzvah gone ahead with the boy wearing this prayer shawl, it would have been deemed illicit.

A replacement shawl was provided and the service continued. 

The family wishes its identity kept secret. Many Israeli shops however sell 'messianic' prayer shawls. 

Last September, there was controversy after photographs emerged of Donald Trump wearing a traditional Jewish prayer shawl inside a church.  He was presented with the shawl during a visit to the Great Faith Ministries in Detroit, Michigan. He was given the shawl along with a Bible by Detroit pastor Bishop Wayne Jackson, who said: 'This is the Jewish Heritage Study Bible and we have it especially for you, and we have one for your wife. Because when things go down, you can study the word of God. When things seem like it's almost impossible, you read Mark 9:23, "If one canst believe, all things are possible."'