March 18, 2022
This article is republished from The Conversation.
Lisa Fishbein Joffe
March 18, 2022 marks the 100th anniversary of the first Bat Mitzvah ceremony in the United States.
Judith Kaplan, daughter of the influential rabbi Mordechai Kaplan, became the first woman to publicly celebrate the traditional Jewish coming-of-age ceremony: becoming a bat mitzvah, or “daughter of the commandment,” means that a young woman has become a legal adult under Jewish law.
The Bat Mitzvah is based on the centuries-old Bar Mitzvah, or “son of the commandment,” ceremony for a 13-year-old boy. Today, it typically involves months or years of study, a reading from the Torah before the congregation, and reflection on the week’s readings.
Since that day in 1922, coming-of-age ceremonies for Jewish girls have become increasingly popular, especially in the more liberal denominations of Judaism.
As someone who studies how law and social change intersect to advance women’s rights in religious communities, I believe the bat mitzvah had a transformative impact on women’s rights in Jewish life that continues to resonate in important ways today.
Over the years, what becoming a bat or bar mitzvah has meant has varied widely. For boys, it marks the moment when they acquire all the privileges given to adult men in the tradition, including the right to be counted in a minyan, the minimum number of people required for communal prayer, the honor of being called to give a blessing during Torah readings, and the right to recite the Torah itself. For girls, on the other hand, it often means celebrating their coming of age, but not necessarily the right to participate fully and equally in synagogue rituals.
It is only in recent decades, and in the context of more liberal movements, that the ceremonies instituted and the rights accorded to boys and girls have become substantially equal.
In fact, because of the controversy over whether women are allowed to recite the Torah, Judith Kaplan was not given the honor of being called to read from the Torah scroll, which is part of the normal routine for boys at their bar mitzvahs. She gave a speech after the ceremony was officially concluded, recited a prayer, and read excerpts of Bible verses from the book.
Today, in some communities, bat mitzvah girls still read a passage of scripture on Friday evening or after Saturday morning services, rather than the usual Saturday morning service, but the bat mitzvah ritual, in various forms, has spread across all movements within Judaism: it is widely practiced in Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist communities (later a branch of progressive Judaism founded by Judith Kaplan’s father), and is becoming increasingly popular in the Orthodox world.
The introduction of the Bat Mitzvah marked a stepping stone to expanding the role of women in all parts of the Jewish world.
For example, within the Conservative movement, tensions arose when women’s participation in the bat mitzvah led to their exclusion from other aspects of ritual life and leadership: girls and women who were educated alongside boys and celebrated their bat mitzvahs in the same way would later be excluded from adult roles.
As Jewish studies scholar Ann Lapidus Lerner summarizes:
“The bar mitzvah ceremony marks the young man’s assuming the responsibilities and privileges of adult Judaism, and it is hoped that this will be the first of many such occasions. The bat mitzvah, however, marks the young woman’s withdrawal from participation. It will be the only occasion on which she will be permitted to stand to read a haftorah — excerpts from the biblical books of the prophets that are read each week on the Sabbath after the Torah portion.
Efforts to resolve this contradiction have led to an expansion of the role of women within Conservative Judaism, including the appointment of women rabbis.
Orthodox women continue to push the boundaries of bat mitzvah. Many Orthodox synagogues have special programs to celebrate a girl’s coming of age, hosting a celebration in which she lights Shabbat candles and shares what she has learned from the scriptures in a speech to the community. Some Orthodox communities host women-only prayer meetings where girls read the Torah, while in others, families hold the ceremony at home.
As the Bat Mitzvah ritual becomes more widely accepted, adult women who were not afforded the opportunity to study the ritual as children are also seeking a Bat Mitzvah. They choose an adult Bat Mitzvah because they want to be more involved in ritual instruction in their synagogue community or because they want to develop their skills so that they can mentor their children when it comes time for them to begin training for their own Bar or Bat Mitzvahs.
Receiving a bat mitzvah as an adult can be a public forum for marking an important change in Jewish identity.
Project Kesher, an American nongovernmental organization that develops Jewish women’s leadership in the former Soviet Union, supports adult bat mitzvah programs. These efforts help women reclaim their identity after being barred from Jewish education due to anti-Semitic state policies.
Coming-of-age bat mitzvah ceremonies can sometimes celebrate a more personal journey. In a recent episode of the “Sex and City” sequel “And Just Like That,” the character Charlotte faces a crisis when her child doesn’t want to participate in her Jewish coming-of-age ceremony. Charlotte saves the day by using the opportunity to have her own bat mitzvah, celebrating her Jewish identity as a “Jew by choice” after converting to Judaism years earlier.
The television program also highlights a new innovation regarding the Bat Mitzvah ceremony: the adoption of the gender-neutral terms “B’nai Mitzvah” or “Bee Mitzvah.”
In many situations, bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies are now identical, but the names of the ceremonies are still differentiated by gender: “bar mitzvah” for boys and “bat mitzvah” for girls. Some churches, like Charlotte’s, have moved to using the term “b’nai” (child of the commandment) or simply “b-mitzvah” as an inclusive term for all children, including those who identify as non-binary.
So when American Jews celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Bat Mitzvah, they are not just celebrating a momentous event in one girl’s life, but an innovation that paved the way for greater inclusion of women, children, and others previously excluded from a central ritual of Jewish life.
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