Background Videos
Explore these three videos and related discussion questions by Rabbi Carole Balin.
JWA’s Encyclopedia entry on Bat Mitzvah: American Jewish Women provides additional historical context.
Wait! Bat Mitzvah is Only 100 Years Old?!: How the Ceremony Came of Age
Rabbi Carole Balin traces a brief history of Bat Mitzvah, from March 18, 1922, when Judith Kaplan became the first American girl to have a bat mitzvah ceremony, to today, when girls across the Jewish spectrum, from secular to ultra-Orthodox, mark their coming-of-age. Created by the Jewish Women's Archive for Rise Up/Bat Mitzvah at 100, in partnership with SAJ: Judaism That Stands For All.
- What surprises you about Judith Kaplan’s bat mitzvah story?
- How did bat mitzvah emerge in your community?
- What was your experience of bat mitzvah?
The Girls Who Sparked a Jewish Gender Revolution in Jewish Life
Rabbi Carole Balin explores how, as increasing numbers of girls followed in Judith Kaplan’s footsteps and marked their bat mitzvah, girls and women began to expect – and even demand – access to ritual honors and roles in synagogue leadership. Bat mitzvah pioneers were a catalyst for expanding all women’s participation in Jewish life, paving the way for female rabbis and inspiring their mothers to become bat mitzvah as adults. Created by the Jewish Women's Archive for Rise Up/Bat Mitzvah at 100, in partnership with SAJ: Judaism That Stands For All.
- How did bat mitzvah pioneers effect change?
- What changes in ritual have you seen in your lifetime?
- What proposed changes haven’t caught on in your community?
- In what ways have women in your community sought greater participation in Jewish life?
- What are the obstacles to change in your community? In the larger Jewish world?
- Can you think of other examples where girls pushed for change?
“I Didn’t Want To Be Called A Girl, and I Didn’t Want a Bar Mitzvah”: The Next Frontier in Inclusion in Jewish Life
Rabbi Carole Balin discusses how the revolution in Jewish life bat mitzvah girls sparked a century ago is entering a new phase as new conceptions of gender are stretching the Jewish coming-of-age ceremony once again. Gender-expansive kids are leading the way in creating the gender-neutral ritual known as b’mitzvah. Created by the Jewish Women's Archive for Rise Up/Bat Mitzvah at 100, in partnership with SAJ: Judaism That Stands For All.
- How does gender affect your relationship to Judaism?
- How is your experience different from that of your parents’ generation? The next generation?
- Do you think we should differentiate between the coming-of-age rituals for female-identified, male-identified, and nonbinary individuals?
- Will there come a time when there will be only b’mitzvah? Why or why not?
Rise Up/Bat Mitzvah at 100 is a project of the Jewish Women’s Archive and SAJ: Judaism That Stands For All.
