Jerusalem, August 3 - Family and friends attending nuptials at the Bible Lands Museum this week encountered serving staff who considered themselves entitled to cash contributions above and beyond the full legal wages they later received, as if those wages did not exist, event insiders reported.

The attendees further learned that the hosts already tip some of the staff as well, in addition to the negotiated price for their floral, musical, photographic, video, or waitering functions.

“One of the couples at our table set aside a wine glass and urged the others to put in twenty, twenty-five, or even fifty shekels each,” recalled a still-disbelieving guest. “I’ve lived in Israel for twenty-seven years now, almost my entire adult life, and this is the first time I’ve seen such a phenomenon. Do people think the waitstaff isn’t being paid?”

The guest observed that unlike in restaurants, where servers in some countries earn less than minimum hourly wage and rely on tips to make up for the shortfall, catering staff at event venues face no such need - even in Israel, where only restaurant clientele, not wedding guests, are often presented with a pre-calculated “service” amount to add to their bill.

For other attendees, the tip solicitation explained the unusual solicitousness of their waiter or waitress. “Suspiciously polite and helpful,” a nephew of the bride put it. “I didn’t put two and two together until I overheard someone asking a waiter for his Bit ID.” Bit is a rough Israeli equivalent of Venmo.

In retrospect, the nephew’s wife realized, their waiter’s attentiveness and zeal in removing used dishes and pre-opening the drink bottles - not to mention persistently asking if everything was to the diners’ satisfaction, to the point that several wondered whether he might be afflicted with some degree of autism - seemed more consistent with angling for some extra cash and less with typical adolescent behavior.

Observers of the phenomenon voiced doubts as to whether the expectation of such tips can ever be reversed. “Israel has deep socialist roots,” explained economist Maggi Lee. “The culture of demanding more and more money from the average citizen, for the sake of providing for those who have less, still permeates the thinking of so many. Israel’s remarkable economic growth and prosperity in recent decades hasn’t fundamentally altered that. By the way, when I’m done with this interview, I expect a tip of at least a hundred shekels.”

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