HomeKehilla Bar/Bat Mitzvah Program |
Becoming Bar/Bat Mitzvah at Kehilla Community Synagogue
Apprenticeship-style learning offers students a unique, intimate and supportive learning environment in which to explore themselves in a Jewish Renewal context. Membership in Kehilla Community Synagogue and two years’ attendance in Kehilla School, level 5th & 6th grades, is a prerequisite to enrollment in the Bar/Bat Mitzvah program.
The Program:
- Classes of 2 students and a teacher meet once weekly.
- Students explore their own views of God, Judaism and Jewishness through study and experiment with mitzvot (commandments).
- The entire family is involved in the learning process.
- There is a community of support for the Bar/Bat Mitzvah experience created for both parents and young people through Family Workshops, Chavurot, social gatherings and an annual Ropes Course.
Kehilla’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah Program is designed to help its students come to their own understanding of what God, Judaism, being Jewish and the Bar/Bat Mitzvah can mean to them personally.
Our approach redefines Bar/Bat Mitzvah as a process of growth, reflection, meaningful exploration and experimentation.
The months the student spends in concentrated study culminate in a Shabbat morning service in which the young person reads from the Torah, presents a drasha (teaching) to the community and helps lead the community in prayer.
For further information or questions, email Sandra Razieli, Bar/Bat Mitzvah Coordinator, or call (510) 547-2424, ext. 105.