The Shabbat Bar/Bat Mitzvah “service” is a public celebration that follows several years of intensive course of study. At the service, our Bar/Bat Mitzvah will demonstrate their knowledge by chanting from the Torah scroll, reciting a Haftarah, leading prayers, and speaking publicly about what they've learned from their Jewish studies.
Our community recognizes that this is an important time of transition for families as their children reach their collective coming of age. For those families with only one Jewish parent—this may be an entry into Judaism unlike any they've have undergone thus far. This spiritual and educational journey isn't just for the student — parents also engage in the learning process with the student.
Here's what one parent had to say about their their family's Bar/Bat Mitzvah years:
"A 'peak experience,' right up there with our children’s births, graduations, and our marriage ceremony. It was an emotional time of great excitement, pride and joy, an uplifting time of 'floating on a cloud,' an intense immersion in study, practice, interpretation, reading and writing. It was a unique undertaking when alongside the normal activities of daily life, a powerful spiritual and intellectual journey gradually took shape, took on a life of its own and culminated in the sanctuary on the 'Big Day,'” when everything we learned and discovered was presented publicly and shared with our community.”
Please read our Bar/Bat Mitzvah Handbook for details of the program.