Jun 10, 2013
The 60 year old bat mitzvah
It is always emotional and touching when reading stories about an elderly person who celebrated a bar mitzvah, after he was not able to at age 13 due to the Holocaust, being in Soviet Russia, or for a myriad of other reasons. no matter how frequently a similar story comes out, it is always emotional and strong.
It is a bit rarer to read about a women celebrating her bat mitzvah at an elderly age.
By a bar mitzvah there is a formal form of celebration, even if it is only based on custom and tradition rather than obligation. the young man goes through some combination of:
It is a bit rarer to read about a women celebrating her bat mitzvah at an elderly age.
By a bar mitzvah there is a formal form of celebration, even if it is only based on custom and tradition rather than obligation. the young man goes through some combination of:
- reading from the Torah portion
- reading the haftorah
- getting an aliyah
- saying a speech
- leading the services
- hosting a party (possibly with fireworks and sunglasses at night, if in Israel)
A bat mitzvah normally does not have all that tradition - generally the party is the main event. So celebrating the bat mitzvah 50 or 60 years later is not quite so common.
For one woman in Chicago, though, it just happened.
Karen Lewis, a the President of the Chicago teachers Union, just celebrated her bat mitzvah at the age of 60. She converted to Judaism 20 years ago and has now decided to combine a celebration marking 20 years along with a bat mitzvah celebration.
Lewis attends an unnamed Conservative Synagogue, and did not just have a party, but also read from the haftorah. Despite that, I did like her comment mentioned in Crane's Chicago Business "The beautiful thing about doing a bat mitzvah as an adult is that people really want to help, I was in the middle of a really tough year, but frankly, that's what got me through it. It was so important".
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