"former in Warsaw (1843) and the latter in Lemberg (1902). The occasion was marked by a party without any ritual in the synagogue. According to the archivist at the Great Synagogue in Rome, the custom of a young woman being called up in synagogue before the entire community dates back to the early years of the Roman Jewish community approximately 2,300 years ago. The community recognized her as ""being of age"" and acknowledged her in a public fashion. This would support more modern documents that record an Orthodox Jewish Italian rite for becoming bat mitzvah (which involved an ""entrance into"
"Hebrew and study to receive their bat mitzvahs. Sharing their excitement at being included in the less-than-century-old tradition, the women explain what their faith means to them. Rabbis began to experiment with the idea of a bat mitzvah in the 1920s, but for decades it was still generally believed that men ran a synagogue — and a woman had no place on the bimah [synagogue podium]. It’s only with the recent feminist movement that girls have been invited to study Jewish texts and, in some sects, are encouraged to be active members of the synagogue. As they prepare to be"
"Judith Kaplan Eisenstein Judith Kaplan (September 10, 1909 – February 14, 1996) was an author, musicologist, composer, theologian and the first person to celebrate a Bat Mitzvah publicly in America (see below). The bat mitzvah was created to address Judaism's gender imbalance and is the female equivalent of a boy’s bar mitzvah, signifying entrance into religious majority. Judith, the oldest daughter of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (who was the founder of the Reconstructionist branch of Judaism), was the first person to celebrate a Bat Mitzvah publicly in America, which she did on March 18, 1922, aged 12, at her father’s synagogue"
"Archives of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Judith Kaplan Eisenstein Judith Kaplan (September 10, 1909 – February 14, 1996) was an author, musicologist, composer, theologian and the first person to celebrate a Bat Mitzvah publicly in America (see below). The bat mitzvah was created to address Judaism's gender imbalance and is the female equivalent of a boy’s bar mitzvah, signifying entrance into religious majority. Judith, the oldest daughter of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (who was the founder of the Reconstructionist branch of Judaism), was the first person to celebrate a Bat Mitzvah publicly in America, which she did on March 18, 1922,"
"for boys and girls, in emulation of parallel Christian initiation rite. These soon spread outside the movement, though many of a more traditional leaning rejected the name ""confirmation"". In the ""New Reform"", Bar Mitzvah largely replaced it as part of the re-traditionalization, but many young congregants in the United States still perform one, often at the Feast of Weeks. Confirmation for girls eventually developed into the Bat Mitzvah, now popular among all except strictly Orthodox Jews. Some branches of Reform, while subscribing to its differentiation between ritual and ethics, chose to maintain a considerable degree of practical observance, especially in"
"a minyan. The Women's Balcony The Women's Balcony () is a 2016 Israeli comedy film directed by Emil Ben-Shimon. An orthodox congregation in Jerusalem is celebrating a Bar Mitzvah when a section of the synagogue's balcony, where the women sit, collapses. The rabbi's wife is badly injured and in a coma. The elder rabbi, unable to cope with his wife's condition, cannot function and is cared for by Zion. Rebuilding, with all the funding, permits and inspections is too much for the leaderless congregation. Congregants meeting in a schoolroom for morning prayers, are short of a quorum of ten men"
"minyan, girls attain Bat Mitzvah at the age of 12 as in other Orthodox congregations rather than 13 (as in some Conservative and liberal congregations). In all-women's services, it is often customary to call a ""Bat Kohen"" (daughter of a Kohen) and a ""Bat Levi"" (daughter of a Levite) for the first and second ""aliyah"". In partnership minyan services, only men are called for the Kohen and Levi aliyah. Most but not all Conservative congregations permit women to have an aliyah for at least part of the reading. Many Conservative congregations, and nearly all Reform, Reconstructionist, and Renewal congregations, practice"
"widely practiced Jewish ritual of the Bat Mitzvah. The exhibition is based on more than 150 responses to the Bat Mitzvah survey and showcases the evolution of the Bat Mitzvah through the stories of women who pioneered the sacred ritual of the Bat Mitzvah. ""A couple years ago we wanted to show the evolution of the bat mitzvah"" says Deborah Meyer, executive director and cofounder at Moving Traditions. ""the ceremeony is often taken for granted; now every girl today seems to have a bat mitzvah. In Judaism, for thousands of years, it was men who were on the pulpit and"
"personally to conduct the ceremony."" At first only boys were confirmed, on the Sabbath (""Shabbat"") that they celebrated becoming Bar Mitzvah; the ceremony was performed at the home or in the schoolroom. In Berlin, Jewish girls were confirmed for the first time in 1817, in Hamburg in 1818. Confirmation was at first excluded from the synagogue, because, like every innovation, it met with stern opposition from more traditional rabbis. Gradually, however, it found more favor; Hebrew school classes were confirmed together, and confirmation gradually became a solemn and celebration at the synagogue. In 1822 the first class of boys and"
"women"", but Bader, as a woman, was excluded. Orthodox Judaism requires that 10 Jewish men (over the age of 13) be present for a minyan, and women are excluded from being counted. She notes that her attitude might be different, following her attendance at a bat mitzvah ceremony in a more liberal stream of Judaism where the rabbi and cantor were both women. In March 2015, Ginsburg and Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt released ""The Heroic and Visionary Women of Passover"", an essay highlighting the roles of five key women in the saga: ""These women had a vision leading out of the"
"The Women's Balcony The Women's Balcony () is a 2016 Israeli comedy film directed by Emil Ben-Shimon. An orthodox congregation in Jerusalem is celebrating a Bar Mitzvah when a section of the synagogue's balcony, where the women sit, collapses. The rabbi's wife is badly injured and in a coma. The elder rabbi, unable to cope with his wife's condition, cannot function and is cared for by Zion. Rebuilding, with all the funding, permits and inspections is too much for the leaderless congregation. Congregants meeting in a schoolroom for morning prayers, are short of a quorum of ten men (a minyan)"
"appear in Midrashic and Kabbalistic literature. The Mitzvah of separating challah is traditionally regarded as one of the three Mitzvot performed especially by women. In some Kabbalistic literature, such as Shlomo HaKohain of Greece's commentary on the Zohar, the performing of this commandment by women, who traditionally did the cooking, uplifts the dough from a state of ""tevel"" (spiritual non-readiness) and brings it to a state of ""khullin"" (mundane and permitted to its owner), thereby correcting the action of Eve who gave of the forbidden fruit to her husband. The mitzvah of challah is one mitzvah with two parts: (1)"
"means ""son of the commandment"" literally, and ""subject to commandments"" figuratively). Girls mature a year earlier, and become a ""bat mitzvah"" (""bat mitzvah"" means ""daughter of the commandment"") at twelve. The new men and women are looked upon as adults and are expected to uphold the Jewish commandments and laws. Also, in religious court they are adults and can marry with their new title of an adult. Nonetheless in the Talmud; Pirkei Avot (5:25), Rabbi Yehuda ben Teime gives the age of 18 as the appropriate age to get married. At the end of the bar or bat mitzvah, the"
"has a ""get""-like divorce document issued by its rabbinic court, and conversion requires circumcision by males and ablution by both sexes. Egalitarianism did not become prevalent in most synagogues until the 2000s, although the first female rabbi, Jackie Tabick, was ordained in 1975. Mixed seating was only accepted just before and during World War II. Recognition of Jews by patrilineal descent was affirmed in 2015. Reform Judaism currently ordains female and LGBT clergy, conducts LGBT marriages and has egalitarian services, counting women for ""minyan"" and allowing them full participation. Girls have their bat mitzvah at 13, the same age as"
"Bat Mitzvah was celebrated by the group at the wall using a miniaturized Torah scroll which they smuggled in. Although the women have won the legal right to pray in their fashion at the wall, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, the Supervisor of the Western Wall, has refused to allow the women to use the Torah scrolls distributed in the men's section or to bring their own. The group said that a reading from the Torah scroll in the women's section was an historic event. On December 18, 2014 Women of the Wall held a women's candle lighting at the Kotel. For"
"Rabbi Dan Sikowitz accepted the position as first rabbi in Kol Ami's short history. In October 2007, a group of women at Kol Ami celebrated their bat mitzvahs. The women, who varied in age, were older than the traditional age for such a celebration, but had never had such an opportunity themselves since the tradition was not popular when they were that age. In 2008, Kol Ami received a Torah saved from the Holocaust from Lviv, Ukraine. It was the first Torah scroll of the congregation, and they paid $20,000 for it. Members of the congregation, some of whom are"
"the arrest of Anat Hoffman and called it a ""desecration of God's name."" In October 2014, Women of the Wall launched a campaign to encourage girls to have their bat mitzvah services at the Kotel. Unlike most diaspora Jewish girls, Israeli Jewish girls typically do not celebrate a bat mitvah by reading from their Torah portion. The ad campaign features girls wearing prayer shawls and holding a Torah scroll in front of the wall. The ad, placed on Israeli buses, has the caption, ""Mom, I also want a bat mitzvah at the Kotel!"" The Western Wall Heritage Foundation, which is"
"Beth Shalom has its own Youth Group, aimed at young people from age 12 upwards and run in conjunction with RSY Netzer, the Reform youth movement. After receiving a full Jewish education in preparation, the children of Beth Shalom members are provided with the opportunity to become Bar or Bat Mitzvah at the age of thirteen as part of the Shabbat morning service. Most young people learn to chant a portion of the Torah, reading directly from the Torah scroll on the occasion of their Bar or Bat Mitzvah. Beth Shalom engages in social action projects in the wider community"
"1969, divorced in 1987), her conversion to Judaism, and the birth of her daughter Rachel. Nussbaum's interest in Judaism has continued and deepened: on August 16, 2008 she became a ""bat mitzvah"" in a service at Temple K. A. M. Isaiah Israel in Chicago's Hyde Park, chanting from the ""Parashah Va-etchanan"" and the ""Haftarah Nahamu"", and delivering a ""D'var Torah"" about the connection between genuine, non-narcissistic consolation and the pursuit of global justice. During her studies at Harvard, Nussbaum encountered a tremendous amount of discrimination, including sexual harassment, and problems getting childcare for her daughter. When she became the first"
"the Israeli artist Yaacov Agam; in addition to this, the wall that contains the Heichal is a sculpture made by the Venezuelan artist Harry Abend and can accommodate about 100 people in the women's section upstairs. The synagogue also has a lounge in the basement, which is used for celebrations and bar and bat mitzvahs, wedding receptions, meals and the sheva Brachot ritual, which was inaugurated in 1988. On the top floor of the building, next to the area of prayers used by women, is a study room or Bet Midrash. Available in the synagogue are Torah with Rashi, prayer"
"of rock, blues, and Irish folk music. Their songs, written in Hebrew, combine liturgical passages with original lyrics. Ashira (band) Ashira (, fem. ""I will sing"") is an Israeli Jewish rock band based in Ramat Gan. They were formed at Bar-Ilan University in 2006 by violinist Pnina Weintraub and flutist Yael Teitz. They are notable for performing exclusively for women in accordance with the Jewish law of ""kol isha"". Ashira was formed in 2006 by Bar-Ilan music students Pnina Weintraub and Yael Teitz. Weintraub was frustrated at having to dance behind a mechitza at school parties and Jewish holidays, so"
"one is honoring the ""Queen"" and her ""King."" Mitzvah tantz Mitzvah tantz (lit. ""mitzvah-dance"" in Yiddish) is the Hasidic custom of the men dancing before the bride on the wedding night, after the wedding feast. Commonly, the bride, who usually stands perfectly still at one end of the room, will hold one end of a long sash or a gartel while the one dancing before her holds the other end. There are times when one of the leading rabbis, usually her father or grandfather, will dance with her as well. The dance is usually a highly charged emotional moment, wherein"
"more equal since the women are not farther away from the service than the men. The women's section of the synagogue is called the ""Ezrat Nashim"" (, women's courtyard) after a similar area in the Temple in Jerusalem. In Ashkenazic European synagogues, the women's section or annex was called the ""weibershul"". Historically, the ""weibershul"" was led by a Firzogerin, a learned woman who would translate the Hebrew liturgy of the main service led by the chazzan into the vernacular. Orthodox Judaism is divided on whether a synagogue mechitza represents binding law or a custom. During the middle portion of the"
"Belzer Rebbe, the Sar Sholom, celebrated his bar mitzvah on 26 February 2008 (27 Adar I 5768). The bar mitzvah ""tish"" was conducted by the Belzer Rebbe in the presence of thousands of Hasidim and dozens of other Rebbes and Torah leaders. As the Belz Great Synagogue was not large enough for the crowd, a giant tent with bleachers was erected out in the courtyard. Festive meals and other events were held for the women in all five halls of the Jerusalem Convention Center. On 21 May 2013 their eldest son, Sholom Rokeach, married Hana Batya Panneth (a daughter of"
"Mitzvah tantz Mitzvah tantz (lit. ""mitzvah-dance"" in Yiddish) is the Hasidic custom of the men dancing before the bride on the wedding night, after the wedding feast. Commonly, the bride, who usually stands perfectly still at one end of the room, will hold one end of a long sash or a gartel while the one dancing before her holds the other end. There are times when one of the leading rabbis, usually her father or grandfather, will dance with her as well. The dance is usually a highly charged emotional moment, wherein the dancer prays silently for the couple's success"
"her hands to a Torah scroll. Zeved habat Zeved habat (), mostly known as brita (Hebrew: ), and often as simchat bat (Hebrew: ) is a Jewish naming ceremony for newborn girls. In the Ashkenazi community, namegiving ceremonies for newborn girls were not widespread and often limited to the father announcing the baby's name in the synagogue on the Shabbat, Monday, Thursday or other occasion when the Torah would be read following the birth. Sometimes a kiddush will be held at the synagogue for family and friends. Although ceremonies can be found in Ashkenazic sources. Rabbi Yacov Emden includes a"
"Nishmat (midrasha) Nishmat: The Jeanie Schottenstein Center for Advanced Torah Study for Women is a Modern Orthodox Jewish institution of higher Torah learning for women, or ""midrasha"". It was one of the first places in the world to teach Jewish women Talmud and in-depth Halakha intensely and systematically. Along with Midreshet Lindenbaum it is one of the foremost institutions for expanding the formal religious role of women in the Modern Orthodox world. First located in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood in Jerusalem, then in the Bayit Vegan neighborhood in Jerusalem, where its space was rented from a synagogue, it is now"
"Maharat Maharat is a Yeshiva located in Bronx, NY, which is the first Orthodox institution in North America to ordain Orthodox women. The word ""maharat"" (מהרת) is a Hebrew acronym for words ""manhiga hilkhatit rukhanit Toranit"" () denoting a female ""leader of Jewish law spirituality and Torah"". Maharat, as a clergy title, is awarded with semikha to the graduates of a 4-year-long program composed of profound studies of Jewish law, Talmud, Torah, Jewish thought, leadership training, and pastoral counseling. In 2009, Rabbi Avi Weiss and Rabbi Daniel Sperber ordained Sara Hurwitz. She was the first woman to receive Orthodox semikha."
"Bat Kol (organization) Bat Kol (Hebrew בּת קול: lit. 'daughter of a voice' meaning 'echo') is an Israeli organization for lesbians who are Orthodox Jews. The organization was founded to provide a home for religious women struggling to reconcile their traditional religious ways of life and their sexual orientation. In July 2008, Bat Kol held its first elections and entered a new phase in its development by becoming an official organization. Bat Kol is a growing community building new pathways for fulfilling and celebrating both religious and lesbian identities, making it possible for women to live in loving relationships and"
"Yeshivat Chovevei Torah does not admit female students. Yeshivat Maharat, also started by Avi Weiss, accepts female students for ordination. Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, (Yeshivat Maharat notwithstanding), accepts only male candidates for ordination. However, YCT, unlike a number of rabbis and institutions within Orthodox Judaism, has expressed an openness to the possibility of expanded roles for women in ritual life. Founder Avi Weiss explained: ""Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School, as an Orthodox institution, requires that its students daven only in synagogues with mechitzot [partitions for the separation of men and women]. The phenomenon of women receiving aliyot in a mechitza minyan"
"well as give a ""D'Var Torah"" or sermon. The first Orthodox Jewish women's prayer group was created on the holiday of Simhat Torah at Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan in the late 1960s. Ephraim Mirvis, an Orthodox rabbi who serves as the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, supports Shabbat prayer groups for Orthodox women, saying, ""Some of our congregations have women prayer groups for Friday night, some Saturday mornings. This is without women reading from the Torah. But for women to come together as a group to pray, this is a good thing."" In most"
"lighting effects, such as strobe lighting and smoke machines. In the Jewish community, Bar and Bat Mitzvah celebrations often involve dances. Dances are common for Quinceañeras, sweet sixteen parties and débutante celebrations. Some of these coming of age events involve a father-daughter dance. At wedding receptions, the newlywed couple may opt to have a first dance (before all guests are invited to participate on the dance floor). A dance party that is gaining popularity is the Bollywood dance party, featuring music from Hindi cinema from India. A popular dance party that demonstrates this style of music and dance combination is"
"Women of the Wall Women of the Wall (Hebrew: נשות הכותל, ""Neshot HaKotel"") is a multi-denominational feminist organization based in Israel whose goal is to secure the rights of women to pray at the Western Wall, also called the Kotel, in a fashion that includes singing, reading aloud from the Torah and wearing religious garments (""tallit"", ""tefillin"" and ""kippah""). Pew Research Center has identified Israel as one of the countries that place ""high"" restrictions on religion, and there have been limits placed on non-Orthodox streams of Judaism. One of those restrictions is that the Rabbi of the Western Wall has"