Bar / Bat Mitzvah Celebration

Although the bar/bat mitzvah meal is traditionally a seudat mitzvah--a meal with sacred status--extravagance has been rife for hundreds of years.

The bat mitzvah ceremony is of relatively recent vintage, with the first American observance in 1922.

The women's prayer service is becoming the choice venue for a bat mitzvah in Orthodox synagogues that value egalitarianism and learning.

As girls have become the educational equals of boys in Orthodox Judaism, rabbis need to explore halakhah to create a normative bat mitzvah ceremony.

Originally bar mitzvah meant simply "coming of age." The ceremony developed much later.

For converted children, bar/bat mitzvah is a time for affirming their connections with Judaism.

Suggestions for adding social action to this rite of passage.

Mitzvah projects are often part of the bar/bat mitzvah observance .

What to expect and how to behave at a bar/bat mitzvah service.

The defining moment of the ceremony is the child's first aliyah, but children may also play additional roles in the service.