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Tag: Bat Mitzvah

The Divorced Parents’ Guide to Planning a Bar/Bat Mitzvah

Organizing a major life event can be stressful for any family — but for those going through a high conflict divorce, these tips can be a lifesaver. By Ezra Weinberg Published originally at kveller.com Orchestrating a massive life event like a bar or bat mitzvah is hard enough for any family. It’s basically a crash […]

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Why I Declined to Appear on Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City

Meredith Marks - Adult Bat Mitzvah on Real Housewives of Salt Lake City

As someone who has dedicated much of my rabbinic career to making Jewish lifecycle events meaningful and authentic, I was honored to be approached by the producers of Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. They asked if I would help Meredith Marks, one of the show’s stars, celebrate and reaffirm her Jewish faith […]

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How to Make Your Own Tallit

I recently had a bat mitzvah student ask if she could make her own tallit. She loves tigers and recently ordered bed sheets with pictures of tigers on them, but they were the wrong size. The company sent a replacement set and told her to keep the original set. She asked me if she could […]

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Mitzvah Project Mania

From eJewishPhilanthropy By Esther D. Kustanowitz New initiatives look to help Jewish teens connect to themselves and their community before becoming adults Gone are the days of donating a portion of your gift money to charity; groups across the U.S. want b’nai mitzvah projects to resonate. When Elie Klein was 13, he knew that giving […]

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Bat Mitzvah is the Theme for New Adam Sandler Movie on Netflix

‘You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah’ is an endearing Sandler family affair By Amy Spiro – Times of Israel This might be Adam Sandler’s most Jewish movie ever — and that’s saying something. From “Uncut Gems” to “The Meyerowitz Stories,” “Sandy Wexler” and “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan,” Sandler has long […]

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The Role of Grandparents in Their Grandchildren’s B-Mitzvah Experience

BY RAHEL MUSLEAH JEWISH GRANDPARENTS NETWORK REIMAGINING ROLE OF GRANDPARENTS IN GRANDCHILDREN’S B-MITZVAH EXPERIENCE We all recognize this B-Mitzvah scene: A 13-year-old stands on the bimah, chants from the Torah and/or haftarah, and delivers a d’var Torah prepared with the help of the rabbi or educator. The extended family sits in the front row, emotional […]

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Am I Really A Bat Mitzvah (An Original Essay)

*This is a wonderful original essay by a Jewish day school graduate who is now in high school. This essay won first prize in the Cohn-Haddow Center essay contest in 2022. Am I Really A Bat Mitzvah By Ellery Gnesin Tuesday, March 24th 2020 Standing there, in the middle of dancing at 8 o’clock in […]

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Adam Sandler’s Bar Mitzvah Movie on Netflix

I was disappointed to see that Adam Sandler is wearing a kippah (yarmulke) in his upcoming movie about a bat mitzvah and it’s not the kippah that I presented to him back in 2000 when he was on the set of the movie “Little Nicky.” The movie was being filmed on the street next to […]

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Bat Mitzvah Dance at Detroit Synagogue Goes Viral 25 Years Later

Shelby Kaufman, a native Metro Detroit Jewish woman has gone viral after the Today Show on NBC picked up her viral TikTok video, which over 7 million people watched. Shelby made a side-by-side video of her original bat mitzvah dance and a recreation of her doing the same dance 25 years later. Shelby returned to […]

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Celebrating 100 Years Since the First Bat Mitzvah

Today, March 18, 2022, marks the 100 year anniversary since the first bat mitzvah100 year anniversary since the first bat mitzvah. Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan held the first public celebration of a bat mitzvah in the United States, for his daughter Judith, on March 18, 1922, at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism, his […]

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Transgender Bar Mitzvah Ceremony – They Mitzvah Challenges Jewish Traditions

In HBO’s ‘And Just Like That’ finale, a ‘they mitzvah’ challenges Jewish traditions From JTA News By Philissa Cramer February 3, 2022 The previews for the season finale of “And Just Like That,” the “Sex and the City” reboot airing on HBO, suggested that viewers would get to see a “they mitzvah.” And for most […]

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They Mitzvah – Sex & the City’s Reboot

They Mitzvah - Charlotte York - Sex and the City

In the final episodes of “And Just Like That” on HBO Max, Charlotte York-Goldenblatt (Kristin Davis) helped her nonbinary child, Rock, prepare for their traditional Jewish coming-of-age ceremony. Typically (traditionally?), bar and bat mitzvahs, in which 13-year-old boys and 12-year-old (often, also 13-year-old) girls are welcomed into adulthood and called up to the Torah for the […]

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Rep. Gabby Giffords Becomes a Bat Mitzvah in Arizona Ceremony

Gabby Giffords’ bat mitzvah was as joyous and tearful as you’d expect As former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords stood before the congregation of Temple Chaverim in Tucson, Ariz., and kissed her tallit, preparing to chant from the Torah for her bat mitzvah, Rabbi Stephanie Aaron placed her hand atop Giffords’ hand, her voice rising and […]

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Bar Mitzvah A Capella Song – Parody of Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5

  The Pella performers are a wonderful a capella group who put their own bar mitzvah spin on Maroon 5’s “Moves Like Jagger.” Check out the a capella bar mitzvah song, “Moves Like Moses.” Enjoy it.  

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Pew Report on Jewish Americans – May, 11, 2021

Here is the latest Pew Report on Jewish Americans in 2020, published by the Pew Research Center. I include this on the Mitzvah Rabbi website because many of the statistics and findings are telling when it comes to more Jewish American families choosing to celebrate their children’s bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah in alternative ways, […]

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Unaffiliated Jews Get Creative for Bar and Bat Mitzvahs

Here’s a great article from the Jewish Exponent about Unaffiliated Jews being creative with their children’s bar/bat mitzvah ceremonies: By Hilary Danailova There was no question that the Danskys of Livingston, New Jersey, were going to have their children Bar and Bat Mitzvahed. There was also no question of joining a synagogue to do so. […]

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Zoom Mitzvahs – Virtual Bar Mitzvah and Virtual Bat Mitzvah Services

From the Jerusalem Post February 28, 2021 NEW YORK – When the Bregman family was planning their son Daniel’s bar mitzvah this past November, parents Eleanor and Peter found themselves with a lot more responsibilities –and ownership – over the process than they had with the two previous bat mitzvahs they had planned. Daniel’s bar mitzvah, which […]

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Bar Mitzvah Projects During the Covid Pandemic

Community Leadership Immersive Programs: B’nai Mitzvah Projects in a Virtual World By Tali Puterman Thiago in Lynn reached into his mailbox and cautiously opened a letter from BIJAN, the Boston Immigrant Justice Accompaniment Network. BIJAN, a network of faith communities, individuals, and other activist groups working to reduce the escalating harm of our immigrant system […]

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What It’s Like to Have a Virtual Bar Mitzvah

From JewishBoston.com (by Kara Baskin): Among other things, social distancing makes large gatherings like bar and bat mitzvahs pretty much impossible. So Sudbury’s Erica Silverman, a member of Temple Shir Tikva, started a Facebook group to help families in the same boat. Why did you launch this Facebook group? The Virtual Mitzvah Planning group was […]

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Zoom Bat Mitzvah – COVID-19 Pandemic

From the Jewish Journal: I dislike technology and technology doesn’t like me. So, when my niece Kimberly (my brother Ted’s daughter), who lives in Connecticut, called to ask me if I would do her family the honor of accepting an aliyah at her daughter Julia’s Bat Mitzvah, I immediately said yes. I can’t say I […]

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