Nine women, most well into their 90s, are having their Bat MItzvah ceremonies in Cleveland, Ohio. The NYT reports:
The women grew up in the shadow of the Great Depression, when bar mitzvah ceremonies for boys were weekly affairs but Jewish girls came of age without notice or fanfare.A bat mitzvah was rare in the United States until the 1950s and '60s, said an associate rabbi at Menorah Park, Howard Kutner. Since then, many adult women have decided to make up for what they were denied as children, but most who do so are in their 50s and 60s, Rabbi Kutner said. A septuagenarian is rare and a nonagenarian nearly unheard of, he said, but only those in or near their 90s showed up when he offered bat mitzvah instruction to Menorah Park women of any age...
A self-described "feminist all my life," Evelyn Bonder, 90, said she "always thought girls should have the chance to participate" in something that Conservative, Orthodox and Reform congregations embraced in stages.
Love that. These women prove that it's never too late to have the experiences, recognition, and learning--religious or otherwise--that you crave.
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Mazel tov!
I just had my bat mitzvah last year in Israel at the age of 25. My family isn't religious (and neither am I) so it was never presented as an option for me when I was 13. My brother didn't have one either and probably never will. But for me, when I had it last summer it was a very moving experience because I felt like it really connected me to the Jewish part of my history (which is extremely important to me, I'm very connected to my Jewish ethnicity, just not the religious aspects). It's a deeply personal experience and I would've been crushed to have been told that since I was a girl I wasn't important enough to celebrate that time in my life.
I'm so glad these women are finally getting to experience them, whatever it means to them.
Mazel tov.
My mom had an adult Bat Mitzva. It's pretty cool. What's annoying is the weird gentile faux mitzvot fad, although it may have died out now.
Yes, mazel tov! I'm so glad these women were able to experience something that means so much to them.