Our Bar and Bat (B'nai) Mitzvah Program

If you are looking for a secular, humanistic Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah your child, you've come to the right place!  We are proud to offer a meaningful and contemporary, secular Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah Program that actually makes sense to young adults. Our congregation has fostered many B'nai Mitzvot.

For Humanistic Jews, a Bar or Bat Mitzvah marks the beginning of the period of adolescence.  It is not a time that a Jewish child becomes an adult.  Rather it is the time a Jewish child begins the journey toward adulthood. A humanistic Bar or Bat Mitzvah is the public recognition that, like generations of Jewish children past, this child of the congregation now has the capacity and maturity to take on greater responsibility for the decisions that he or she will make.

Humanistic Jews approach the bar and bat mitzvah time a bit differently than other denominations. The focal point for each child is to create a process that helps him or her to grow intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. When the bar/bat mitzvah year is over, the young adult should feel a greater sense of personal strength and a greater connection to the Jewish people and to humankind. The ceremony is an endpoint where the community and family come together to celebrate the Bar/Bat Mitzvah accomplishments.

Adat Chaverim asks each of its Bar or Bat Mitzvah candidates to choose and complete a series of 13 tasks throughout the course of a year.  These tasks are designed to help students become more familiar with the richness of their Jewish culture and heritage, and to support them in participating more fully in their communities.  Students can choose to do the things that most interest them. They might, for example, perform community service, create Jewish artifacts, visit Jewish museums, attend services for other Jewish denominations, read books by Jewish authors, prepare Jewish holiday meals, and study a Jewish hero.

At the culmination of this course of study, students are free to create a ceremony, along with a Trained Advisor and the parents, that will be meaningful to them. They can take a traditional approach, choosing to read from the Torah and to speak about the personal impact of their Torah portion’s message on their own lives. In a Humanistic bar or bat mitzvah, however, the choice of portion is not determined by the date of the ceremony. Any Torah portion that a person finds meaningful is an appropriate choice. Alternatively, the bar or bat mitzvah candidate can present a Jewish hero, design a service around another topic that inspires their lives, or create an entirely new ceremony that meets his or her particular needs.

Adat Chaverim has a cultural school and mentors available to help children gain the education necessary to prepare for their bar and bat mitzvoth. We also have a Rabbi and life cycle leaders available to help families design ceremonies that will compliment their Jewish values and identities.