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Bar & Bat Mitzvahs

B’nai Mitzvahs Simchas: Nov. 20-26, 2009

There are two easy ways to send us your birth, bar/bat mitzvah, engagement, wedding and anniversary announcements. Visit us at jewishjournal.com and click on the Simchas link at the bottom of the page — there you’ll find an easy, efficient way to post your news and upload a photo.

Repairing the World, One Book at a Time

Finding the true meaning of the word “mitzvah” can be a difficult task, especially as a newly minted teen. While the Hebrew word means commandment, it’s also come to mean an expression of loving-kindness. And luckily for seventh-grader Jacob Tobias, 12, he knew right away what his mitzvah was when he set out on a mission of good deeds.

Celebrations trim down amid recession

With the weak economy forcing lifestyle changes large and small, one of the mainstays of American Jewish life — the bar and bat mitzvah party — is undergoing some recession-era adaptation.

Maccabiah B’nai Mitzvah Large Draw for Team USA

When Jessica Zutz was training with the U.S. women’s open field hockey team, she hadn’t given much thought to participating in Team USA’s b’nai mitzvah, an event scheduled before the start of the 18th Maccabiah Games in July.

A Double Simcha Without a Double Headache

Deborah Siegel Baker is mother to identical twins Max and Sam, who will celebrate their b’nai mitzvah in 2011. She already experienced the joys and pressures of planning a simcha with her daughter’s bat mitzvah four years ago at Hillcrest Jewish Center in Flushing, N.Y. And given that experience, the prospect of planning for two has her on edge, even though it’s still two years away.

Work Humor Into the B’nai Mitzvah Speech

The bimah is only a few feet above the floor, yet for any mom looking out across the synagogue at the gathered sea of mostly familiar faces, she might as well be Moses addressing the crowd from atop Mount Sinai. While the audience is friendly and the content of her speech concerns matters far less urgent than those of life and death — or the very future of a nation — she is nonetheless anxious and tense. The occasion is her son’s bar mitzvah and she wants her speech to strike just the right chord — a blend of poignant, interesting, relevant, terse and funny.

Inmates Celebrate B’not Mitzvah

Two women, identified as Carol and Pamela — not their real names — became b’not mitzvah on Saturday, Sept. 5. Both are inmates at the California Institution for Women (CIW) in Corona, located about 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles. The event is believed to be the first bat mitzvah to take place inside prison walls in the United States.

Hot Shots

The parents of post-bar or bat mitzvah children often display their photo album featuring moments from the big day — their child holding the Torah, posing with family, hanging on for dear life during the chair dance and mugging for the camera with friends. But these albums reflect how the parents see their child, rather than how the children see themselves.

Climbing to Reach Bat Mitzvah

Standing on the eastern tower of Masada in the Negev Desert, watching the sun rise higher in the sky over the Dead Sea, reciting a Hebrew passage from the Torah, I cried with joy, triumph and anticipation as I was in the midst of what I considered the most personally momentous occasion of my life to that point — my bat mitzvah celebratio

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More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.