The Adult B’nai Mitzvah
MARISSA STERN | JE STAFF
When Andrea Shuster was growing up, few women in her family
had a Bat Mitzvah.

Two cousins did, she recalled, but her aunts? No.

Grandmother? No. Mother? No.

Shuster was given the choice between a Bat Mitzvah or a sweet
16 — she chose the latter.

“It just really wasn’t something that was encouraged growing
up in my family because it was usually all the men at that time,”
recalled the 43-year-old. “We were raised Conservative and it
wasn’t a huge, big thing back then, so if the girls didn’t really want
do it they didn’t push it.”
On March 11, she joined seven other women on the bimah as
they became B’not Mitzvahs at Congregation Rodeph Shalom.

Adult Bar and Bat Mitzvahs are not uncommon.

In Shuster’s group, which ranged from women in their 20s to
their 70s, there were those who converted and wanted to have a
Bat Mitzvah now and those who may have been like Shuster and
didn’t feel a strong desire to have one when they were 13.

Doing the ceremony now has made it more meaningful for
Shuster, who grew up in Northeast Philadelphia and attended Ner
Zedek off and on.

See Turning, Page 32
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SIMCHAS MARCH 23, 2017
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