Judith, Your take on Elena Kagan's long-ago fight for the right to have a bat mitzvah is on the mark. To me, Kagan's story is a loud reminder that Jewish women -- mostly, Orthodox Jews - are still striving for equality on the bimah. Kagan also reminded me just how lucky I am to be able to participate as much or as little as I want in my own Reform congregation.
I celebrated my adult bat mitzvah in 2006 - at age 41 - because I passed up on the opportunity as a teen. I later researched the experiences of women of all of Judaism's branches and found many still trying to figure out how to juggle Orthodoxy with a desire to chant from the Torah. I was motivated, too, to blog about Kagan's Bat Mitzvah in an entry I call, "Elena Kagan's Fight for Bat Mitzvah Creates Guilt Trip." You can find it on the Jewish Muse blog at http://www.lindakwertheimer.co...
Judith, Your take on Elena Kagan's long-ago fight for the right to have a bat mitzvah is on the mark. To me, Kagan's story is a loud reminder that Jewish women -- mostly, Orthodox Jews - are still striving for equality on the bimah. Kagan also reminded me just how lucky I am to be able to participate as much or as little as I want in my own Reform congregation.
I celebrated my adult bat mitzvah in 2006 - at age 41 - because I passed up on the opportunity as a teen. I later researched the experiences of women of all of Judaism's branches and found many still trying to figure out how to juggle Orthodoxy with a desire to chant from the Torah. I was motivated, too, to blog about Kagan's Bat Mitzvah in an entry I call, "Elena Kagan's Fight for Bat Mitzvah Creates Guilt Trip." You can find it on the Jewish Muse blog at http://www.lindakwertheimer.co...
Again, thank you for a provocative read.