log in | create an account
GET EMAIL UPDATES

Becoming a Jewish Adult

The path to adulthood is full of twists and turns. From celebrating a bar/bat mitzvah to leaving home for the first time, this is a journey fraught with new freedom, new responsibilities, and an abundance of complex emotions. We offer blessings, prayers and rituals that help parents and children use a Jewish vocabulary to describe this journey—and to experience it as richly as possible.

Photo by Jordan Cassway

A Recollection of the First U.S. Bat Mitzvah

By Judith Kaplan Eisenstein, z"l | Article

Mordecai Kaplan's daughter describes her bat mitzvah in 1922 in New York. [more]

Found In: Bar / Bat Mitzvah

Bat Mitzvah: Preparing Girls for Womanhood in a Changing Judaism

By Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell | Article

A program involving text study, the creation of blessings, and tzedakah, welcoming girls into the rich continuum of Jewish women's experience [more]

Found In: Bar / Bat Mitzvah

Twelve Ways to Make Your Bat Mitzvah Meaningful

Article

This list, compiled for Orthodox girls, has good ideas for anyone planning a bar or bat mitzvah. [more]

Found In: Bar / Bat Mitzvah

Toward a Meaningful Bat Mitzvah

Article

A guide to creating a meaningful ceremony within the framework of traditional Judaism [more]

Found In: Bar / Bat Mitzvah

Misheberach Prayer for a Bat Mitzvah Girl

Prayer

Various congregrations in Israel recite this prayer in synagogue for a bat mitzvah. It is adapted from the standard Siddur Rinat Yisrael. [more]

Found In: Bar / Bat Mitzvah

Misheberach Prayer for a Bat Mitzvah Celebrant in the Florentine Tradition

Prayer

A traditional bat mitzvah prayer from the community of Florence, Italy [more]

Found In: Bar / Bat Mitzvah

Prayer for a Bat Mitzvah According to Italian Ritual in Turin and Milan

Prayer

A traditional bat mitzvah prayer [more]

Found In: Bar / Bat Mitzvah

Tags: mi sheberakh

The Voice of a Mother

By Renee S. Septimus | Prayer

A mother's prayer, written for her son's Bar Mitzvah [more]

Found In: Bar / Bat Mitzvah, Childhood Milestones

Little Girl, My String Bean, My Lovely Woman

By Anne Sexton | Poem

A beautiful poem about a daughter's coming of age [more]

Found In: Bar / Bat Mitzvah, Parenting Day-to-Day

Candle-Lighting Ceremony for a Bat Mitzvah

By Rabbi Danielle Upbin and Mindy Solomon | Complete Ceremony

Riffing on the now-traditional candle-lighting, this ceremony offers a candle for eight women in Jewish history. [more]

Found In: Bar / Bat Mitzvah

Tags: candle lighting