Adult B’nei Mitzvah Series Will Be Offered 5774
For the first time in 7 years, BCC will again offer B’Nei Mitzvah instruction. Training for and having an adult B’Nei Mitzvah is a life cycle event — a chance to examine/re-examine what Judaism means to you, learn to read Hebrew, get up close and personal with a torah scroll, chant a short portion of torah publicly and deliver a short drash.
A small group of candidates will share the experience and study together. You can become Bat/Bar Mitzvah for the first time or reaffirm what you did when you were young. A group B’Nei mitzvah ceremony will take place following completion of the training.
Your answers to the following brief survey will help make this wonderful experience available to the most possible participants. Please respond by Friday, August 2nd – or better yet, answer it right now! Click here to take survey
LGBT Bar-Mitzvah Related Stories and Testimonials:
“My parents took bets on when I would come out of the closet. Practically everyone in my immediate friend zone already knew before I did. It seemed as though I was one of those kids that everybody knew was gay before they themselves realized it. I had all of the signs: I gave my sister’s Barbies makeovers that would make Tabatha Coffey cry tears of joy, I would always be Princess Peach or Princess Daisy in any Mario game, I took ballet when I was 4, I began doing theater at the age of 6, and I resented typical boy colors because I thought a sexist world was wrong at the young age of 8…” Read the full post (Gabe Friedman, 2012)
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“I grew up Orthodox in Israel. By the time of my bar mitzvah—in April 1982—I was living in New York City, a sweet kid in a polyester suit. A little on the chubby side, perhaps. My dark blond mop of hair covered a pimpled forehead.
Being Orthodox had its advantages. Chanting my bar mitzvah portion was no problem. I rattled it off with ease. The problem was the speech. There was so much I wanted to say, but my English wasn’t good enough, and anyway, my speech had been written for me by my uncle, a renowned rabbi, who gave me a tired presentation expounding on the laws of charity. Thirty years on, I would like to think that if the choice had been mine, and I had been able to summon the courage, this is the speech I would have delivered at the Fifth Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan.” Read the full post (Amichai Lou-Lavie, 2013)
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