feature story
A Century After First
Bat Mit zvah,
Jewish Coming-of-Age Still Evolves
some Jewish tweens,
Judith Kaplan Eisenstein’s reality
was their worst nightmare.

Th e evening before, Eisenstein’s father,
Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan, told his
daughter that she would be having a bat
mitzvah ceremony — chanting Torah and
prayers in front of the entire congregation
— giving her few hours to prepare.

Th e tight timing of the ordeal was only
one part of the anomalous situation:
Eisenstein would also become the fi rst
young Jewish woman to have
a bat mitzvah, the ceremonial
honor until then only aff orded
to young men. Previously, women
only participated in a b’nai mitzvah,
a group ceremony for young Jews,
regardless of gender.

On March 18, 1922, a Saturday
morning, Eisenstein left her seat in the
front row of the women’s section of the
Society of the Advancement of Judaism synagogue
in New York to stand on the men’s side, some distance
away from the bimah, to read from the Chumash, the
book with the printed text from the Torah.

One hundred years aft er Eisenstein became a bat
mitzvah in front of her community, her accomplishment
is being recognized, both through events honoring the
milestone and by the continuous paradigm shift the
Jewish institution of b’nai mitzvah is undergoing in
some communities.

Despite the unprecedented nature of Eisenstein’s
Jewish coming of age, the event was not particularly
controversial in the community.

Kaplan was the founder of the Reconstructionist
movement, which was defi ned by its views of Judaism as
an ever-evolving culture and religion. He had an interest
20 MARCH 17, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Dylan Tanzer as Judith Kaplan
in the suff rage movement of the time and in fi rst-wave
feminism, which advocated for the increased presence of
women in public roles.

Kaplan saw Eisenstein, his eldest daughter, as
his disciple and mentee, according to Stockton University
history professor and great-niece of Eisenstein,
Sharon Musher.

“He had four daughters and he wanted them to
participate in this rite of passage,” Musher said.

In line with his Reconstructionist sensibilities, Kaplan
took the consensus of the SAJ community, who agreed
that Eisenstein could have a bat mitzvah in front of
the congregation. Only Eisenstein’s grandmothers had
qualms with the ceremony, Musher said.

Eisenstein’s bat mitzvah had marked diff erences to the
likes of those seen today in Reform, Reconstructionist
and some Conservative spaces: She didn’t read from the
Torah scroll or wear a tallit or kippah. Eisenstein wasn’t
permitted to be on the bimah until the bat mitzvah of
her daughter Miriam many years later. Eisenstein had
a second bat mitzvah in 1992, four years before
her death.

In honor of the 100th anniversary of
Eisenstein’s bat mitzvah, SAJ - Judaism
Th at Stands for All, will host a Rise Up/
Bat Mitzvah At 100: National Shabbat
on March 17 over Zoom and in-person.

With Ironbound Films, they launched an Instagram
campaign @judithkaplan1922 to illustrate what young
Judith Kaplan’s life at 12 would have been like had she
had Instagram as a child.

Dylan Tanzer, the West Orange, New Jersey-
based actor who will play the bat mitzvah girl in
the Instagram project, believes Eisenstein was an
“inspiration to all Jewish girls now.”
Only seven months away from her own bat mitzvah
at a Reform synagogue, Dylan, 12, will read as much
of her Torah portion as she can. Learning more about
Eisenstein’s story, Dylan was shocked that the fi rst bat
mitzvah, something of an inevitability in her Jewish
upbringing, was near-unheard of a century ago.

“I cannot express that it was 100 years ago,” she said. “I
just thought it was normal; I didn’t even think about it.”
But Eisenstein didn’t just open the door for young
girls. For Jewish women not allowed to celebrate their
bat mitzvah when they turned 12, Eisenstein’s legacy
gave them a chance to fulfi ll the mitzvah later in life.

Th is year, Congregation Beth Tikvah, a Conservative
synagogue in Marlton, New Jersey, held an adult b’nai
mitzvah class to coincide with the 100-year anniversary.

“It’s by design that we’re doing it this year,” Rabbi
Nathan Weiner said.

Beth Tikvah was the fi rst Conservative congregation
to allow for bat mitzvahs that were identical to bar
mitzvahs, according to Weiner.

Th e egalitarian nature of the synagogue is what drew
congregant Bonni Rubin-Sugarman to the synagogue
more than 30 years ago.

Now 70, Rubin-Sugarman, a student in Beth Tikvah’s
adult b’nai mitzvah class, will have the bat mitzvah
ceremony she longed to have but didn’t as a tween.

Growing up with a father who was the president
of a Conservative synagogue, Rubin-Sugarman was
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SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF