Bar Mitzvah Archives

KSDS and Cardinal Shehan School Come Together for Special Concert

by Linda L. Esterson | Jan 18, 2019 | Bar Mitzvah, Children, Community, Community Resources, Education, Family, Milestones, Religion, Schools

Harrison Fribush has the music in him, and he wants to share that passion with other kids throughout the Baltimore area. A seventh grade student at Krieger Schechter Day School, Harrison has embarked on a bar mitzvah project unlike that of most of his peers. On Jan....

Family Celebrates B’nai Mitzvah of their Adopted Children

by Anna Lippe | Nov 29, 2018 | Bar Mitzvah, Bat Mitzvah, Children, Community, Community Resources, Education, Family, Milestones, Parenting, Religion, Spirituality

For Renée and Andrew Dain, the concept of adoption comes down to two of their most cherished values – family and Judaism. The Dains, who live in Ellicott City and belong to Pikesville’s Temple Oheb Shalom, recently adopted Renée’s three half-siblings, Raquel, Gregory...

Bar Mitzvah Boy Makes Generous Donation to the Children’s Guild

by Taryn Womack | Apr 19, 2018 | Bar Mitzvah, Children, Community, Community Resources, Education, Family, Milestones, Religion

A few months before his bar mitzvah last January, Jacob Hahn toured the Northeast Baltimore group homes and TranZed Conference Center of the Children’s Guild. The guild provides services, programming and resources for children, adolescents and families with emotional,...

This Teen Had a Gender Neutral B’nei Mitzvah

by Josefin Dolsten, JTA | Mar 2, 2018 | Bar Mitzvah, Bat Mitzvah, Community, Community Resources, LGBT, Parenting, Religion

(JTA) — When Esther Thorpe came out as non-binary a year ago, identifying neither as male nor female, Miriam Taylor Thorpe was worried. Esther’s mother already had a child come out as gay and feared that Esther, 14, would have trouble finding a Jewish community...

Women Don’t Read Torah … Or Do They?

by Faye Rivkin | May 8, 2017 | Bar Mitzvah, Community, Community Resources, Religion, Spirituality

“Mazel tov!” “Yasher Koach!” These phrases were recently thrown at me, along with handshakes and hugs, as I left the bimah and made my way to my seat in Beth Am Congregation’s magnificent sanctuary in Reservoir Hill. The previous five minutes were a blur, but these...

The Parting Shot

by Abe Novick | Jan 3, 2017 | Bar Mitzvah, Bat Mitzvah, Community, Education, Religion, Spirituality

Just as the cold snap clipped the autumn leaves off the trees and ushered in a frost, my seventh-grade students and I set about our annual ritual — making tallitot, or prayer shawls. Since this will be the year the students become b’nai mitzvah, they’ll be able to...