Many Motivations for Adult
B’NAI MITZVAHS
SELAH MAYA ZIGHELBOIM | JE STAFF
J Senior Rabbi Jill Maderer (far left) poses with Congregation
Rodeph Shalom’s most recent B’nai Mitzvah class. PHOTOS PROVIDED
UDAISM JUST FELT RIGHT to Julia Engel,
who grew up Catholic but converted to Judaism
more than two decades ago.

She studied the religion and attended services.

She married a Jewish man and had a Jewish family.

But there was one element of the Jewish tradition
she had never experienced, so when her 10-year-old daughter
received the date for her Bat Mitzvah four years ago, Engel start-
ed to think that she wanted to have one, too.

“This will bring my journey, maybe, full circle, from where I
started 20-some years ago when I was 26 years old, when I want-
ed to become Jewish as a choice, a Jew by choice,” Engel said. “I
thought, ‘This is it then. I’ve done everything I’m supposed to
do. I’ve attended; I’ve studied; I’ve worshipped; I’ve lived. Now,
I’m going to actually complete it by doing this.’”
For the women and men — though mostly women — who
have B’nai Mitzvahs as adults, their reasons for doing so vary.

Some, like Engel, converted as adults. Others grew up in fam-
ilies that didn’t have a strong connection to their Jewish com-
munities or couldn’t afford Hebrew classes. And then, of course,
there’s that common story of the woman who has a Bat Mitzvah
as an adult because the community she belonged to as a child
only performed Bar Mitzvahs for boys.

Unlike B’nai Mitzvahs for 12- and 13-year-olds, these adult
B’nai Mitzvahs tend to be done as a group, the celebrations tend
to be more low-key and the B’nai Mitzvahs themselves bring
added perspective to the experience.

16 MARCH 22, 2018
Barbara Marx (standing, second from left) with retired Adath Israel
Cantor Bernard Lowe (far left), Rabbi Eric Yanoff (far right) and her
B’nai Mitzvah class
Congregation Rodeph Shalom has an adult B’nai Mitzvah
class whenever there are enough people who have expressed in-
terest in participating, said Rabbi Eli Freedman, which generally
happens every few years. Their last class, a group of eight wom-
en, had their B’not Mitzvah in March 2017.

Freedman said adult B’nai Mitzvah classes used to be domi-
nated by older women who hadn’t had a Bat Mitzvah when they
were younger because their communities didn’t practice them.

Now, that’s no longer the case.

“We’re seeing less of that,” Freedman said. “There’s just not
as many of those women around. ... What we’re seeing more of
now is more conversion students.”
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