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Bar & Bat Mitzvahs

Unique party planning isn’t chopped liver

Some things never change, or do they? Bar and bat mitzvah parties overwhelmingly follow a recipe that everyone assumes is written in stone, said Gail Greenberg, creator of mitzvahchic.com. The only room for creativity, people think, is to have a unique theme.

Curacao shul offers venue with Caribbean flavor

Compared with the millennia of Jewish history, the scant few centuries of Jewish settlement in the Western Hemisphere is like a drop in the ocean those Jews had crossed from Europe. The history of the Jews in the American colonies is even shorter: more than 100 years before the Jews of Newport, R.I., built their synagogue (now the oldest continuously active synagogue in the United States), the Jewish community of the Caribbean island of Curacao had built theirs — Congregation Mikve Israel, which holds the record as the oldest synagogue in continuous use in the Western Hemisphere.

How to throw a great party for less than $3,000

We all wanted to give my nephew the bar mitzvah party to not just match but surpass all of the one\’s he\’d been invited to during the year. Yet the family\’s fortunes were not equal to the task. All we could scrimp together was $3,000. It could only have been divine inspiration that led us to the conclusion that this actually made the job of putting together a bar mitzvah to remember a lot easier than it seemed.

Advertise joys of Judaism to others during simcha

Given the condition of Judaism in 2008, a bar mitzvah is an ecumenical stew. It\’s not only the non-Jews who wonder about the significance and meaning of the ceremony, but even some of our fellow Israelites stare with wonder and, sometimes, awe.That\’s why a booklet of origins, explanations and exegesis is useful.

Identity and connection spur more adult b’nai mitzvah

The reasons why milifers and seniors have gravitated to adult b\’nai mitzvah programs since the trend first took off in the 1970s are numerous, including the fact that most women didn\’t have such ceremonies until the 1980s (the first bat mitzvah was held in 1922). One perennial influence is a child or grandchild reaching b\’nai mitzvah age, and the divergent issues brought about by intermarriage can sometimes compel one or more adults in a family to take on b\’nai mitzvah study to serve as a role model.

Will ‘Bro Mitzvah’ find roots in African American community?

Lillie Hill knew that 16 marked a turning point in her son DJ\’s life. And while she had looked into several African rites of passage, she believed the Jewish bar mitzvah ceremony, with its emphasis on family heritage and good deeds, gave her the best blueprint to validate her son\’s dedication to family, school, community and church and to pass on her family\’s values of education, worship and social outreach.

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Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

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.