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Becoming a Jewish Adult

A young person reads from a Torah scroll with two adults by their side, in a ceremonial setting.

The path to adulthood is full of twists and turns. From celebrating a bar/bat mitzvah to leaving home for the first time, this is a journey fraught with new freedom, new responsibilities, and an abundance of complex emotions. We offer blessings, prayers, and rituals that help parents and children use a Jewish vocabulary to describe this journey—and to experience it as richly as possible.

 

Latest Rituals

Mi Shebeirakh Prayer for a Bat Mitzvah Girl

Various congregrations in Israel recite this prayer in synagogue for a bat mitzvah. It is adapted from the standard Siddur Rinat Yisrael.

mi shebeirakh
grassy path at sunset

Mi Shebeirakh Prayer for a Bat Mitzvah Celebrant in the Florentine Tradition

A traditional bat mitzvah prayer from the community of Florence, Italy

mi shebeirakh
teenaged girl facing a sculpture garden in Florence, Italy

Prayer for a Bat Mitzvah According to Italian Ritual in Turin and Milan

A traditional bat mitzvah prayer

mi shebeirakh
teenaged girl in square in milan, italy

The Voice of a Mother

A mother’s prayer, written for her son’s bar mitzvah

  • by Renee Septimus
teenaged boy's face against green background

Little Girl, My String Bean, My Lovely Woman

A beautiful poem about a daughter’s coming of age

  • by Anne Sexton
A woman sits against a tree, reading a tablet, surrounded by a sunny, grassy park.

Candle-Lighting Ceremony for a Bat Mitzvah

Riffing on the now-traditional candle-lighting, this ceremony offers a candle for eight women in Jewish history.
  • by Rabbi Danielle Upbin and Mindy Solomon
candle lighting
A person holding a lit candle at a nighttime vigil, surrounded by others with candles.

Cup of Life Ceremony

A beautiful alternative to a candle-lighting ceremony
candle lighting
Person in a purple shirt holding a stainless steel cup with heart cutouts.

Welcoming Ceremony for the Bar/Bat Mitzvah Celebrant

Following the synagogue service, a minyan of community members conveys what membership in the community entails.
  • by Joseph G. Rosenstein
Circle of women in colorful sweaters touching hands in the middle

Bat Mitzvah Battle

A mother’s poem describing her experiences with divorce as they affected her daughter’s Bat Mitzvah

A chain of red and blue paperclips linked together on a textured concrete surface.

Remember Us Project

The goal of the Remember Us Project is to have each Bar or Bat Mitzvah student remember one individual child lost in the Holocaust.
Holocaust
holocaust memorial
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