Bar or Bat Mitzvah? Hey, What About a Both Mitzvah?
The Jewish coming-of-age ceremony stretches to accommodate the new gender fluidity…
In recent years, more people have been questioning or exploring their gender expression, including teenagers. In Jewish circles this process can coincide with the time for bar and bat mitzvahs. To make space for transgender and nonbinary teenagers, more synagogues and Jewish communities have adopted they mitzvahs (b’nai mitzvahs or b mitzvahs, as other congregations call them.)
“People want to have their whole lives reflect who they are, including major rites of passage,” said Rabbi Rachel Timoner, the senior rabbi at Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn. “The traditions of Judaism adapt every generation. And this is one of the needs of our generation.”
Read the full article by Alyson Krueger on nytimes.com. Graphics by Cari Vander Yacht.