Bat mitzva

Forty-eight IDF orphans mark bnei mitzvah at Western Wall

Forty-eight children who lost a parent in IDF service marked their bnei mitzvah at the Western Wall in a ceremony of unity and remembrance.

|ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF
An IDF orphan, wearing a beret from the Nachal Brigade, celebrating his bar mitzvah at the Kotel in Jerusalem, October 20, 2025.
Athar Aboreesh worked as a counselor on the IDFWO’s Superheroes Trip.

From Yarka to New York: An IDF Orphan’s Journey of Healing

The IDF Widows and Orphans Organization’s annual “Superheroes Trip” brings bereaved children together; for counselor Athar Aboreesh, it became a journey of healing too.

|ByRONNIE ROSENMAN
THE WRITER’S daughter Ya’ara Tehila, of whom he is very proud.

'The daughter of kings and queens': A letter to my daughter on her bat mitzvah

'The ya’ara has an aroma I deeply associate with the Land of Israel, and I wanted you to carry that association with you.'

|ByAHARON E. WEXLER
PLANNERS HAVE said that celebrations for bar and bat mitzvahs are increasingly held at unique venues, such as nightclubs in Center City, stadiums in South Philadelphia, or music venues like the Fillmore.

Inside the world of high-end bar and bat mitzvahs in Philadelphia

DIASPORA AFFAIRS: “What I always guide my clients to do is not get sucked into the mitzvah machine. And keep the focus on the child,” said Jean Kintisch, owner of Pine Hill Events.

|ByERIN MCCARTHY/THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER/TNS

‘And Just Like That…’ star Alexa Swinton is having her bat mitzvah in Israel

It’s Swinton’s first visit to Israel, where she has many relatives she has never met before.

JULY 1, 2023ByLIOR ZALTZMAN/JTA
THE STARS of ‘And Just Like That...’

‘Cocaine Bear’ star Alden Ehrenreich got big break after Spielberg saw him at a bat mitvzah

Ehrenreich, now 33, made a scrappy home movie that he and other friends showed at the bat mitzvah ceremony in 2009.

FEBRUARY 25, 2023ByGABE FRIEDMAN/JTA
DIRECTOR STEVEN SPIELBERG waves to the audience after receiving the Honorary Golden Bear Award for Lifetime Achievement at the 73rd Berlinale International Film Festival, in Berlin, on Tuesday.

A small girl with a big heart raises funds for the Michael Levin Base

Michael had always spoken about his dream to provide support for lone soldiers, which he himself lacked while in the army – and The Base does just that.

FEBRUARY 25, 2023ByANDREA SAMUELS
CHAYA RECEIVES a Certificate of Appreciation from The Base.

Disney+ doc traces Idina Menzel’s rise, from the bat mitzvah circuit to Broadway

The film, directed by Anne McCabe, follows Menzel’s 2018 arena tour, along with Josh Groban, which culminated in Menzel fulfilling her lifelong dream of headlining Madison Square Garden.

DECEMBER 10, 2022BySTEPHEN SILVER/JTA
Idina Menzel performs in a scene from "Idina Menzel: Which Way to the Stage."

To those whose Bar and bat mitzvahs were disrupted by haredi hooligans, I share your fury

My Zionism doesn’t stop if I’m not forever enchanted; my Zionism survives the good, the bad and the ugly.

AUGUST 2, 2022ByGIL TROY
WHEN POLICE unfairly arrested women praying at the Western Wall, Natan Sharansky fumed: It cannot be that ‘Israel, the Jewish state, is the only place in the world where women are arrested for praying Hallel.’

Ronald Lauder condemns Western Wall incident as ‘antisemitic’

WJC head: Ultra-Orthodox reaction in egalitarian section was antisemitic

JULY 30, 2022ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF
Flag parade revelers reach the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City, May 22, 2009.

Orthodox protesters again disrupt prayer at Western Wall as monthly ritual repeats

Thousands of black-attired young yeshiva students swarmed a group of about 100 women and a dozen men who accompanied them to the Western Wall.

JULY 30, 2022ByNOGA TARNOPOLSKY/JTA
The The Western Wall Heritage Foundation's new ‘Western Wall Heritage Center’

American synagogues mark 100th anniversary of the US's first bat mitzvah

The first bat mitzvah in the US was that of Judith Kaplan in 1922.

MARCH 17, 2022ByJACKIE HAJDENBERG/JTA
Judith Kaplan's bat mitzvah in 1922 set the precedent for millions of American Jewish women, including the ladies of Temple Emanuel in 1989.

Yad Vashem's Bar/Bat Mitzvah program keeps Holocaust memory alive

At Yad Vashem, concern over how the Holocaust would remain an integral part of the Jewish consciousness once there were no longer any survivors prompted the start of the twinning program.

JANUARY 20, 2022ByGREER FAY CASHMAN
ARON WELLS of the UK studies Yad Vashem’s materials on the identity of the Shoah victim with whom he was twinned, Aron Gotlib.

12-year-old girl raises NIS 70,000 for ALYN Hospital for her Bat Mitzvah

With coronavirus keeping guests from attending her coming-of-age ceremony, Yazmine Bloch requested that the gift money be donated to help children with disabilities at ALYN Orthopedic Hospital.

APRIL 11, 2021ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF
12-year-old British immigrant Yazmine Bloch