Becoming a Jewish Adult

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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

A ritual for a girl’s first period. Includes a circle of names, blessings, candle-lighting, and gift-giving. Ritual objects include a tambourine, red ribbons, a decorative egg, a ring, candles, and red fruits.

A moonlit ceremony on the shores of a brook. Celebrates the entrance of a daughter into womanhood. Includes songs, book-giving, adapted tashlich ritual, and blessings.

A description of a menarche ceremony created by a woman for her daughter

A private ritual to honor a girl’s entrance into womanhood. Includes rainwater bubble bath, blessings, and teachings on sexual health and well-being.

A Yemenite menarche ritual for a mother and daughter.

Mordecai Kaplan’s daughter describes her bat mitzvah in 1922 in New York.

A program involving text study, the creation of blessings, and tzedakah, welcoming girls into the rich continuum of Jewish women’s experience
This list, compiled for Orthodox girls, has good ideas for anyone planning a bar or bat mitzvah.
A guide to creating a meaningful ceremony within the framework of traditional Judaism

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

The Reconstructionist Network

Serving as central organization of the Reconstructionist movement

Training the next generation of groundbreaking rabbis

Modeling respectful conversations on pressing Jewish issues

Curating original, Jewish rituals, and convening Jewish creatives

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The Reconstructionist Network