Spirituality and Ritual – Page 6

Joining the Chain of Jewish Women: The Matan Mother-Daughter Bat Mitzvah Program

In 1995, Oshra Koren, one of the first graduates of the Matan Scholars Program and presently the director of Matan HaSharon, the Mindy Greenberg Institute for Women’s Torah Study in Ra’anana, was approached by a group of local mothers to create a Bat Mitzvah preparation program. The women said that, although their sons had a […]

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Parents and Schools: Partnering to Create Meaningful Semahot

Geffen Feldman

I currently find myself uniquely poised to comment on the school’s role in the Bat Mitzvah experience. On the one hand, I am a principal with dozens of Bat Mitzvah girls in my charge; on the other, I am a frequent carpool driver for my own middle school daughter who is living through the years

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Toward a Meaningful Bat Mitzvah: A Father Reflects

Geffen Feldman

Felissa, Angelica, Maya—I am the father of three daughters, a circumstance that has led me to question Jewish tradition and ritual in ways that I never considered during the early years of my life. I was raised in a Modern Orthodox home in Brooklyn by refugee parents and attended yeshiva day school and then Yeshiva

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Post Bat Mitzvah: A Family Looks Back

Geffen Feldman

The Marcus-Schwartz family celebrated Shalhevet’s Bat Mitzvah this past winter. Here, Shalhevet, a 7th grade student at Hunter College High School in Manhattan, her mother, Dr. Bat Sheva Marcus, clinical director of the Medical Center for Female Sexuality in New York and a founding member of JOFA, and Yishai, her older brother, a SAR graduate

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Leyning Megillat Esther: The Ultimate Bat Mitzvah Gift

Geffen Feldman

will always be indebted to my parents for the Bat Mitzvah they gave me. I do not mean the party (although it was a wonderful celebration) or the presents. I mean the skill they provided me. For my Bat Mitzvah, my father taught me how to leyn Megillat Esther from a klaf— a handwritten parchment

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New Models for Bat Mitzvah Celebrations in the Synagogue and in the Community

Geffen Feldman

Introduction Recognizing the need for a meaningful Bat Mitzvah ritual, some members of modern Orthodox communities have typically chosen one of two kinds of celebrations. In the first type, the Bat Mitzvah gives a d’var Torah in the synagogue after the service or at the reception hall. This d’var Torah, presented on a subject that

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Blessed with Options: The Special Bat Mitzvah

Geffen Feldman

Becoming a Bat Mitzvah has the potential to be affirming, celebratory, and a wonderful welcome into the Jewish community as a whole and into the community of Jewish women in particular. Yet, planning a Bat Mitzvah can be confusing and stressful, given the various practices accepted and the options available today. This stress is compounded

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Preparing for a Bat Mitzvah: A Celebration of a Lifetime

Geffen Feldman

A year and a half or so before a girl’s twelfth birthday, I meet with her and her parents in my study at our shul. The goal of this initial meeting is to discuss the child’s upcoming Bat Mitzvah and to help her outline a program of educational preparation. Our conversation begins and ends with

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Bat Mitzvah: Historical and Halakhic Aspects

Geffen Feldman

The facts, just the facts, ma’am.” Those were the oft-repeated words spoken by the detective in Dragnet, a popular TV show in the 1950s. They appeal to me as appropriate in exposing the many layers of misrepresentation that have created confusion in discussions concerning Bat Mitzvah in the Orthodox world. So let me begin with

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A Changing Landscape

Geffen Feldman

This issue of the Journal has brought a rush of memories to me about the Bat Mitzvah experiences of my three daughters. My first daughter had her Bat Mitzvah more than 30 years ago. When she turned 11, we began conversations about what she would do to celebrate this milestone. I wanted it to be

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