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FAMILY HISTORY

       rites of passage

 

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Max Fuchs, Bar Mitzvah
      
Brooklyn, New York    
1929 

The Bar Mitzvah

A Coming of Age

What is a Bar/Bat Mitzvah?

The term Bar or Bat Mitzvah means "son (or daughter) of the commandments," though it is not a commandment to hold a Bar or Bat Mitzvah ceremony. A boy becomes a Bar Mitzvah at the age of thirteen; a girl at age twelve in most Orthodox congregations.

This signifies a religious coming of age, and the child is now obliged to assume the life of Jewish adult, with all the responsibilities and duties it entails.

The Bar or Bat Mitzvah's obligations may include the performing of various mitzvot, fasting on the day of Yom Kippur, being part of a minyan, or even leading the congregation in prayer.

During the ceremony, the Bar or Bat Mitzvah may lead the congregation, and read from the Torah, perhaps the parasha (Torah portion) for the week and his or her haftorah.
 

Bar mitzvahs


William
Weisbart,
New York,
1904

Max Fuchs,
Brooklyn,
New York
1929

Sandor Hecht.
Balassagyarmat,
Hungary
1938

Gerhard Schreiber,
Czernowitz,
Ukraine
1941

Chiel Mendel
Melman,
Paris, France
1942

Shiku Smilovic,
Munkács,
Hungary
1945

Bar Mitzvah Ceremony,
Vienna, Austria
1931

A Bar Mitzvah in
Opatów, Poland,
1920s-30s




 


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