My second chance was Sunday, June 5, as the only male in a group of nine adults, including my wife, Lauren, as I celebrated my adult bar mitzvah. A bar mitzvah (for a boy) or bat mitzvah (for a girl) ...

There are few events in Jewish life as significant as a bar or bat mitzvah, the coming-of-age milestone often celebrated alongside a party for family and friends. And for such an important occasion, ...

Thirty years ago, I created my own rabbinical cottage industry — observing and critiquing bar/bat mitzvah, American style, and working on ways to improve it. Here was my basic point: American Jews ...

I begin by extending warm wishes to those readers currently celebrating their most solemn and important religious holidays; to Christians I wish a blessed Easter, and to Muslims a Ramadan kareem and ...

The Jewish ritual of bar mitzvah. which marks a 13-year-old young man’s assumption of religious and legal obligations under Jewish law. Israel_photo_gallery, CC BY-ND It is a common scene on many a ...

In keeping with complete transparent disclosure, I should begin by noting that to officially get “Bar or Bat Mitzvah’ed,” a 12-year-old girl or a 13-year-old boy need only receive an Aliyah (be called ...

This story is free to read because readers choose to support LAist. If you find value in independent local reporting, make a donation to power our newsroom today. For 12-year-old Nomi Kline Solmsen, ...

For Jewish young people, preparing for a bar mitzvah or bat mitzvah celebration is a big deal and a lot of study and work. And yet most of them who come of age in Asheville’s Jewish community are ...

On March 18, 1922, the first bat mitzvah was held. A 12-year-old girl named Judith Kaplan Eisenstein became the first American girl to enjoy that rite of passage. Since then, nearly one million girls ...

This is Part 2 in a series of articles examining bar and bat mitzvahs in America. Until the day I married, my bat mitzvah was the happiest day of my life. I realize that makes me an anomaly, or at ...

For 12-year-old Nomi Kline Solmsen, preparing for her upcoming bat mitzvah is a family affair. Her grandfather, a rabbi, is helping her learn to chant the words from the Torah. Her aunt, also a ...