Make Your Own Bar/Bat Mitzvah »

Rabbi Goldie Milgram is spearheading the Bar/Bat Mitzvah Institute Initiative; researched under a grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation, it will focus on creating meaningful and effective ways of preparing students for Bar/Bat Mitzvah. She is author of Reclaiming Judaism as a Spiritual Practice: Holy Days and Shabbat.

A Guide for Creating Your Own Rite of Passage

Make Your Own Bar/Bat Mitzvah is a useful and inspiring guide that takes you step-by-step through the process of creating a very personal and meaningful Bar/Bat Mitzvah. This book offers a joyful and effective planning process filled with innovative ideas and sound guidance that will help you customize your coming of age ritual. Rabbi Goldie Milgram helps you organize this experience to fulfill your Bar/Bat Mitzah goals regarding your studies, mentors, service, Torah talk, and gifts. Pragmatic and inspiring, this groundbreaking work guides students, families, and communities to create healthy and memorably happy Bar/Bat Mitzvah experiences.

"This is a most valuable book to learn about Judaism for a Bar/Bat Mitzvah of any age!"
–Peninnah Schram, author, Jewish Stories One Generation Tells Another

"Restores relevance and spirituality to the process of becoming Bar/Bat Mitzvah."
–Rabbi David A. Cooper, author, God Is a Verb

"Helps Bar/Bat Mitzvah students enhance their autonomy, thinking, creative engagement, Jewish identity, and self-esteem."
–Ellen Weaver, psychotherapist, pastoral counselor, and Bar/Bat Mitzvah tutor, Woodstock Jewish Congregation

Publishers Weekly

Who wouldn't want to read a book that promises to transform parents from "taskmasters to team members supporting an exciting and motivated student" preparing for bar or bat mitzvah? B-Mitzvah (as Milgram dubs it, obviating long and clumsy alternatives) can be an empowering celebration customized to each individual's strengths and talents. Milgram's pioneering and much-tested methods include creating an 18-month to two-year action plan with a mission statement, strategies, charts, self-inventories and goals that clarify roles and responsibilities. Despite this businesslike approach, Milgram advocates "knowing yourself," finding "the prayer of your heart" and learning the language of your spirit. She even compares B-Mitzvah to Native American rites of initiation. To address the range of emotional, intellectual, spiritual and logistical aspects, chapters focus on developing a Jewish study plan; interpreting the assigned Torah portion; finding a mitzvah project; partying and sharing gifts and memories. Real-life examples from families and students bring her points home. Though the guide is geared to both children and adult B-Mitzvahs, the complex and time-consuming process may deter some 12-year-olds. Still, following even a few of Milgram's suggestions may enrich the celebration. Her unconventional wisdom rooted in tradition will help families navigate the B-mitzvah process so they can make the "hoped-for holiness" happen. (Aug. 27) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.