Judith Kaplan's Bat Mitzvah (1922)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   I asked the women's division of the Reconstructionist College for any "Bat
Mitzvah" citation, and got the following response.  If rrc.edu doesn't have
citations, no one does.  Judith Kaplan Eisenstein's husband was a college
founder.
--Barry Popik
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Subj:   Judith Kaplan's bat mitzvah
Date:   6/19/2002 1:47:56 PM Eastern Standard Time
From:   <A HREF="mailto:dwaxman at rrc.edu">dwaxman at rrc.edu</A>
To: <A HREF="mailto:Bapopik at aol.com">Bapopik at aol.com</A>
Sent from the Internet (Details)



Hello-

I am currently writing a graduate seminar paper on the bat mitzvah
ceremony at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism (SAJ), the
synagogue founded by Dr. Mordecai M. Kaplan, Judith Kaplan's father.
There was no secular press coverage of her bat mitzvah, which occurred
on May 5, 1922, though I have not determined if it received coverage in
the Jewish press (Anglo or Yiddish).

The first reference to the "bas mitzvah" ceremony I have thus far
encountered is in minutes of the SAJ Board of Trustees from early
February 1922, shortly after the congregation was organized.  Dr. Kaplan
informed the Board of his intention to introduce such a ceremony and let
them know that he intended that his eldest daughter to be the first, and
the Board assented with great enthusiasm.  I have not yet had an
opportunity to review Kaplan's diary to determine if he wrote about the
ceremony using this terminology earlier than that date, though if you
check in with me again in a few weeks I hope to have made some headway
on the diary.  I can also email you the precise date and language from
the minute books if this is helpful.

The synagogue standardized the usage to the Sephardic pronuciation "bat"
mitzvah some time in the 30s.

Deborah Waxman

Rabbi Deborah Waxman
Assistant to the President and Director of Special Projects
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
1299 Church Road
Wyncote, PA  19095
(215) 576-0800 x113
(215) 576-6143 (fax)