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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News Why Are Some Spots at Western Wall More Holy Than Others?
Jane Eisner’s special report, A Day at the Kotel, will run in three parts, starting yesterday and continuing tomorrow. Each piece focuses on a different time of day at the Western Wall, and the implications for the battle over the future of Judaism’s holiest site. Now, the sun is high in the sky and boys…
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News Rhythm of Day at Western Wall Driven by Timeless — and Disputed — Tradition
Jane Eisner’s special report, A Day at the Kotel, will run in three parts, starting today and continuing tomorrow and Wednesday. Each piece focuses on a different time of day at the Western Wall, and the implications for the battle over the future of Judaism’s holiest site. The shops are still shuttered as I walk…
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Life Learning From My Bat Mitzvah, 17 Years Later
Resting on the butcher block in my Brooklyn kitchen are seven black and white napkins with the name “Caroline” written on them in a cloud of polka dots. I found the napkins — leftovers from my bat mitzvah — four years ago while combing through the attic as my parents prepared to sell my childhood…
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Life Shabbat War Rages — Over Makeup
We all expect makeup to do exactly what it promises, right? A woman in Monsey, N.Y., has filed a lawsuit in federal court against cosmetics giant Lancome saying that its “24-hour foundation” doesn’t last for 24 hours, which she needs to make it in full makeup through Shabbat. Rorie Weisberg is charging, in her lawsuit,…
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Fast Forward Peter Madoff Gets Jail Break for Bat Mitzvah
Bernie Madoff’s brother Peter Madoff is headed to prison for his role in the notorious billion-dollar Ponzi scam. But not before reportedly attending his granddaughter’s super-luxe bat mitzvah. A judge hit Peter Madoff, 67, with a 10-year sentence. But after received pleas from family and clergy, the jurist allowed the disgraced Madoff brother to report…
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News The Bat Mitzvah Tutor of Beijing
Most people don’t know what to picture when I tell them that I was very active in the Beijing Jewish community when I lived in China from 2006 to 2010. They can’t seem to envision what Jewish-in-China looks like. Is it a minyan of all Chinese Jews? A Chabad rabbi wrangling businessmen and college kids…
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News The Year of the Good Father
The answer came to me when I was driving my daughter to her bat mitzvah training. We were listening to postelection radio coverage, but I was not really paying attention because my daughter had just told me she wasn’t practicing her Torah portion when she was at her mother’s house. I was in a tough…
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Fast Forward 99-Year-Old Australian Marks Bar Mitzvah
A 99-year-old man living in Australia celebrated his bar mitzvah. Isaac Volinsky joined a group of about 40 Jews from the former Soviet Union at a Chabad house near Sydney’s Bondi Beach for the first time last week. When Rabbi Eli Schlanger discovered that Volinsky had never been to the weekly “120 Club” for elderly…
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