The Washington Post

Bar and bat mitzvah dates have been locked in for years. When the pandemic changed everything, families got creative.

For Evie Namath’s bat mitzvah, friends and family drove by to celebrate her from a distance. (Stone Photography Inc.) Most mortals have lost track of time as the pandemic spills into year two. But God ...
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Throwing candy at the computer: What celebrating your bat mitzvah looks like in the time of the coronavirus

(JTA) — Midway through Lila Duke’s bat mitzvah ceremony, her family’s cat made an appearance. Minnie’s interruption was one of many ways that Lila’s coming-of-age ceremony was different from what she ...
The New Yorker

Bat-Mitzvah Girl

The 2005 young-adult novel “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah,” by Fiona Rosenbloom, a pen name of Amanda Stern, recounts the falling-out of two best friends, Stacy Friedman and Lydia Katz, ...
Brandeis University

The Bat Mitzvah: A Celebration of Jewish Women's Empowerment

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 ...
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

How Adam Sandler’s ‘You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah’ imitates real life, from its stars to its parties

The movie stars Sandler’s real-life daughters and portrays a friendship that fractures during bat mitzvah season. (JTA) — To prepare for their role in creating Adam Sandler’s latest movie, crew ...
The Forward

What would Judy do? 100 years after first bat mitzvah, a meditation on female firsthood

This is an adaptation of Looking Forward, a weekly email from our editor-in-chief sent on Friday afternoons. Sign up here to get the Forward’s free newsletters delivered to your inbox. Download and ...