Bar-Mitzvah Research Paper

1212 Words3 Pages

I had no idea that there was a Jewish synagogue right around the corner from my house. The Kol Ami synagogue is located on 2300 E. and Just off of I-80 and is has the membership of roughly 350 family units, which is about ¼ of the Jewish population in Utah. (1) Rabbi Ilana Schwartzman has been at the Kol Ami since 2010 and has a very cultured past including schooling from: the University of Virginia (English and Religion degree), Ben Gurion University (Hebrew studies), and the Hebrew Union Colleges- Institute of Religion in Jerusalem and Cincinnati. (1) This particular Sunday that I visited Kol Ami there was a Bar-Mitzvah, which is also the topic of this paper, more specifically: What is the meaning of a Bar-Mitzvah. We will be going over what it means, some history, and how the actual Bar-Mitzvah ceremony is like.
I have to admit; I was a little hesitant to go into the synagogue at first. But when I entered the doors, I was immediately met by smiling faces. None of the families in the front area greeted me, but after smiling at me, they walked down a hallway. After following them, I was met by three guys who handed me two pieces of paper – which turned out to be a program and a weekly calendar, a Kippah, and two books, one red, one blue. One is the Siddur, …show more content…

During the Bar Mitzvah I went to, I noticed that almost the whole service was dedicated to him. He participated in many readings, and was up with the Rabbi for a lot of the meeting. There was also a lot of his family going up and doing readings, and telling stories. Traditionally, the service includes: Leading specific prayers or the entire service during a Shabbat service, reading the weekly Torah portion, reading the weekly Haftarah portion, giving a speech about the Torah and/or Haftarah reading, and completing a tzedakah (charity) project leading up to the ceremony for charity.

Open Document