Bat Mitzvah (1921, 1949); Kosher (1620); Mellah

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BAT MITZVAH

   OED has 1950.  Perhaps the online New York Times has something.
   A Google search shows that the first Bat Mitzvah was of Judith Kaplan,
daughter of Reconstructionist leader Mordechai Kaplan, in 1921.  Judith
Kaplan Eisenstein died in 1995.
   This is from JEWISH SOCIAL STUDIES, vol. 11, no. 2, April 1949, pg. 161:

   Girls should be included for the _Bat-Mitzvah_, which is practiced in an
increasing number of congregations.

(For "Bar-Mitzvah," see Joseph Addison's 1600s work on the EEBO
database--ed.)

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KOSHER

_kosher._  A Yiddish term for food prepared according to strict Jewish
dietary laws.  The word is taken from the Hebrew _kasher_, "proper," and has
taken on colloquial meanings in America to mean "correct" or "honest" or
"acceptable."
--John Mariani, ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN FOOD & DRINK (1999)

   Merriam Webster says that "kosher" is a "Yiddish" term.  "Kosher" is dated
to 1851.  "Yiddish" is dated to 1886.  Maybe it just took a long while to
name the language?
   I noticed an article titled "Marketing of Kosher Meat" in JEWISH SOCIAL
STUDIES, vol. 23, no. 2, April 1961.  It cites:  Finkelstein, Harry, "The
Kosher Meat Industry," unpublished Master's thesis, the College of Business
Administration, Boston University, 1933.
   This is from JEWISH SOCIAL STUDIES, vol. 16, no. 4, October 1954, pg. 345:

   The Jewish butchers of Prague were the first trade group to prganize a
guild of their own.  The axact year of its founding is unknown, but the
guild's key bears the date 1620.  Engraved on the key are the names of the
two guild wardens, Solomon Wilhartitz and Elias Nefele, and of thirteen guild
members.  At the base of the key is the representation of a lion rampant, the
device of the city of Prague, holding between its forepaws a butcher's axe
inscribed with the Hebrew word _kosher_.*

*Spiegel, Kathe, "Die Prager Juden zur Zeit des dressigjahrigen Kreiges," in
_Die Juden in Prag_ (Prague 1927) p. 130, 180.

(HEBREW word "kosher"--ed.)

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MELLAH

JEWISH SOCIETY IN FEZ
1450-1700
STUDIES IN COMMUNAL AND ECONOMIC LIFE
by Jane S. Gerber
Leiden: E. J. Brill
1980

Pg. 19:  The new Jewish quarter, called the _Mellah_ due to the salty site on
which it was located, became the prototype of the Moroccan ghetto.  The very
name was soon applied, along with Juderia or Juiverie, to all the Jewish
ghettos of Morocco.*

*On the term _Mellah_, cf. Gaudefroy de Mombynes, "Mellah," _Journal
Asiatique_, (I, 1914), 651-8.

Pg. 182:  Between such incidents we find numerous references to Jews
cultivating vineyards selling _mahia_ (a Moroccan liquor made from honey)...
("Mahia" is not in the revised OED?--ed.)

("MAROCAIN _MELLAH_" by "M. GAUDEFROY-DEMOMBYNES" doesn't have a single
English-language citation.  The Jews moved into the Fez quarter in 1464-1465.
 However, Leon l'Africain (1516) "ignore le mot _mellah_."  I didn't see an
exact date  --ed.)

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MISC.

   David Shulman said he was interviewed by Dean Olsher.  I said it was THE
NEXT BIG THING and not ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, but he wasn't sure on the name
of the show.  I said that it was unlikely that 2 1/2 hours of a Friday
interview would be reduced to six minutes for an 11 a.m. Sunday show, but he
said it would be on that Sunday.
   It didn't air today.  I wasted one hour of my life listening to a "witty"
song about a prospective egg donor.   And a guess-the-sound contest.  And
pledge drive info.  I called Shulman, and he said he'll call the producer of
the show on Monday.

   Nets in seven.  Their brilliant strategy is to make the Lakers
overconfident by losing the first three games.