This is the Forward’s coverage of b’nai mitzvah (also called bat mitzvahs for girls and bar mitzvahs for boys), Jewish coming-of-age ceremonies typically done at age 13.
B’nai Mitzvah
The Latest
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The Schmooze This Kid Just Won the Bar Mitzvah Video Wars
Move over, Sam Horowitz. I dub thee Brody Criz, King of Bar Mitzvah videos. The soon-to-man has created what is probably the most insane bar mitzvah invite ever by parodying Pharrell, John Legend, Lorde, “Frozen” and others who shall remain nameless — gotta keep a little mystery. I both love and respect this kid and…
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News My Daughter’s Bat Mitzvah Isn’t Jewish Enough for You?
The Seesaw is a new kind of advice column in which a broad range of columnists will address the real life issues faced by interfaith couples and families. Read the discussion and vote below for what you think is the best response to this particular quandary. You can email your own questions, which will remain…
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The Schmooze Iggy Azalea’s Bar Mitzvah Wardrobe Malfunction
Memo to Iggy Azalea (and any other impromptu bar mitzvah performer): wear underwear. You never know when your pants are going to suddenly split mid-song, giving 13-year-old boys a glimpse of manhood that goes a little beyond their Torah portion. The “Fancy” rapper, 24, was performing her (aptly named) song “Booty” at an unidentified kid’s…
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Life The Bat Mitzvah Girl Who Made Kotel History
Bat mitzvah girl Sasha Lutt reads from a tiny Torah scroll smuggled into the Kotel / Haaretz I am sitting in front of my computer, talking via Skype with three women in Israel — Irina Lutt, her 12-year-old daughter Sasha, and Shira Pruce — who are kicking back after a day of school and work….
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Fast Forward Women of Wall Push for Bat Mitzvahs at Western Wall
Women of the Wall launched an ad campaign on public buses in Jerusalem to promote bat mitzvah ceremonies for girls at the Western Wall. The ads unveiled on Sunday evening feature Israeli girls ages 11 to 14 wearing a prayer shawl and holding a Torah scroll in front of the Western Wall. The ad reads…
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Life Bringing Malala Into Bat Mitzvah Ceremony
You would have to have a heart encrusted with cynicism to not be moved by Malala Yousafzai. It is, in many ways, a modern miracle. An activist for equal education for young girls in her native Pakistan, Malala survived a Taliban bullet and expanded her local quest into an international movement for women’s education in…
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Opinion Alexander Imich, Czar’s Last Bar Mitzvah Boy
Alexander Imich at 111 years old / Guinness Book of World Records Ray Bradbury, in his classic 1955 story “The Last, the Very Last,” has a child encounter a 108-year-old man believed to be the last known Civil War veteran. The story, reworked as a chapter in his novel Dandelion Wine, introduces the veteran to…
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News Why I Wish I’d Had a High School Prom
Sparkly gowns, heels, corsages, suits, ties, teenage pimples. Why yes, I’m talking about the high school prom — that quintessentially American rite of passage. Like many other Jewish girls who attended yeshivas or all-girls schools, my knowledge of proms is secondhand. I know about the gowns and heels and ties and Jewish nerds who take…
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