Last December, Eve Schwartz became an adult. She turned 21 and was finally allowed to drink legally. A few weeks later, she completed another milestone-she became a bat mitzvah.

A year before that, she never thought it would happen.
“I never considered myself a religious Jew,” said the University of Chicago senior. “At 13, I did not care at all about having a Bat Mitzvah.”

But last August, Schwartz decided to go to Israel to find something she thought she was missing. She thought by going to Israel she could forge that connection. On a whim, while filling out the Taglit-Birthright Israel application, she checked off the box that asked if she would like to have a Bat Mitzvah.

She then met with her local Hillel representative three times before her December trip to prepare. Schwartz learned the prayers and picked out a Torah and Haftorah portion. Because she didn’t know Hebrew, she memorized the required prayers and prepared to read the Torah and Haftorah portions in English.

Only a couple months later, she boarded a flight bound for Israel-and her future.

On little more than two hours of sleep, in a hotel in Tiberias, a small Israeli city north of Tel Aviv, she read everything she had memorized in front of nearly 60 others.

“It was the epitome of the experience I had in Israel,” she said. “It was a little ridiculous, fun and really meaningful.”

After she recited the prayers and explained what her Torah portions meant to her, she went outside for her Bat Mitzvah party.

Schwartz says that her time in Israel changed her because it allowed her a chance to connect with her faith. I feel I’m a part of the Jewish student life on campus,” she says.

Although her parents were thrilled that she finally became a bat mitzvah, she did not do it for them, but for herself.

“I did it by myself, without them, she says. I really felt like I was an adult.”

It completely shifted her perspective about Judaism, and she says it changed not only the way she looks at her religion, but her college life as well. Both were communities she had previously felt disconnected from and uncomfortable in, but since her trip to Israel, she has reclaimed both identities to the fullest. She visited Israel again over spring break with her parents and has gotten involved in the Hillel on her campus.

“I’m just so stunned by the fact that I cared and put myself out there enough in the Jewish religion and even at U. of Chicago,” she said. “I just feel this need to give back to the Jewish community now that I feel like I’m a part of it.”

A Recent Development

Although the Bar Mitzvah has been a symbol in Judaism for more than a thousand years, no parallel ceremony for girls developed until the 20th century.

The first public Bat Mitzvah celebration in America was held March 18, 1922 by Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan for his daughter Judith at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism in New York City. Kaplan would later go on to establish the Reconstructionist Judaism movement.

Today, the Bat Mitzvah is identical to its male counterpart; however, according to Beth Emet, The Free Synogogue in Evanston’s Rabbi Peter S. Knobel the ritual didn’t become a common practice until the 1950s.

“Gradually, the Bat Mitzvah took hold in the Conservative movement just as the Bar Mitzvah came into Reform Judaism, which had initially rejected all religious practices,” Knobel says. “Then the Bat Mitzvah came along because we are all about egalitarianism.”

Like Daughter, Like Mother

Like Schwartz, Lisa Horowitz was never religious. And neither was her family. The Bethesda, Md. resident grew up in a Jewish household but never went to services, and her brothers never became bar mitzvahs.

However, when her daughter began preparing for her Bat Mitzvah, Horowitz realized she didn’t even know anything about her own religion.

Horowitz wanted to make Judaism more meaningful for herself, so she enrolled in a popular Adult Bar and Bat Mitzvah class offered at her synagogue about the same time her daughter began her own preparation.

They studied the Hebrew language and Jewish religion at the same time in separate classes, but with the same goals in mind.

Horowitz, 54, met with about 30 classmates every Sunday morning for two years. When she was 47, one year after her daughter’s special day, she became a bat mitzvah as part of a group ceremony the entire class celebrated together.

Although she says she doesn’t regret the experience, she was surprised she didn’t get more out of it.

“The class taught a lot of the nuts and bolts of the service,” says Horowitz. “It was a lot of Hebrew, but it didn’t address my more existential questions about Judaism.”

Despite feeling slightly disappointed, she says becoming a bat mitzvah has enhanced her Jewish experience. Services mean more than they did before and the synagogue has become a larger part of her life.

“I liked being part of that community, and it was nice to feel more involved,” she says.

Horowitz admits her Bat Mitzvah didn’t help her find all the answers, but it did change her

“I’m definitely more spiritually religious,” she says.
Horowitz married a Reconstructionist rabbi in June.

The Second Life Bat Mitzvah

It was 1938. In the midst of World War II, Sophie Black fled Germany and made her way across the Atlantic Ocean to America. She was 12 then, but a Bat Mitzvah was the last thing on anybody’s mind.

“It was a rough time,” said the Evanston, Ill. resident. “We were leaving Germany and I was nervous and frightened, and I was worried about other things. Then my parents settled here, I had to learn a new language and I grew up without ever thinking about it.”

Black adjusted to life in America, started a family and made sure her children and grandchildren each became a bar or bat mitzvah. She never believed anything was missing from her life.

When Black’s rabbi celebrated his second Bar Mitzvah at 83, a ritual conducted because a life is considered complete at age 70, she had an idea.

“If he can do it, then why can’t I?” said Black.
Black visited her rabbi, who thought it was a great idea. In February, at age 83, Black began preparing for her Bat Mitzvah, more than 70 years after many girls start today.

At Beth Emet The Free Synagogue in Evanston, adult Bar and Bat Mitzvahs are fairly common, says Knobel, the temple’s rabbi.

They offer classes for students studying for the ceremony covering both the Hebrew language and Judaism. They meet once a week for two years.

But Black, who has attended Shabbat morning services for more than 50 years, had her Bat Mitzvah preparation shortened to only three months because she was already knowledgeable. Black studied the prayers, her Torah portion and her Haftorah once a week with a woman she knew, and on April 11 she became a bat mitzvah with nearly 300 people watching.

Although she didn’t chant the prayers or read her Haftorah in English, it was a Bat Mitzvah nonetheless.
“It was sort of an ego trip,” she says. “There were no empty seats and people were standing. It was nice and cozy and everybody was happy for me.”

Black says her Bat Mitzvah and her speech allowed her to reflect on the life she has lived.

“I felt I had to make some kind of statement,” she says. “I have lived a long life and I can’t complain. I’ve had adventures-some weren’t so nice-but I’m here today.”

Black’s Bat Mitzvah at such a late age is not unique. Adult Bar and Bat Mitzvahs have existed for the past three or four decades. They were originally developed because many adult women like Black never had the opportunity to participate in the ritual.

“Many congregations have a B’nai Mitzvah program because women want the opportunity to read Torah and celebrate their Jewish knowledge,” Knobel says.

Beth Emet’s programs are usually more than 90 percent female.

Adult Bar and Bat Mitzvahs may not be around for much longer, Knobel adds, because more people are having them when they are younger.

“As women become more and more a part of Jewish worship, [late Bat Mitzvahs] are not going to be a growing ritual,” said Knobel.

Despite this, however, the process and experience changes those involved in different ways. The women agreed that for many 12- and 13-year-old girls in today’s society, becoming a bat mitzvah is taken for granted. By taking that path at a later age, some women have found the answers they were looking for, becoming closer to their families or having memorable experiences that are sure to remain with them for the rest of their lives.

Text By: Alex Finkel