Coming of Age in Jewish America

Bar and Bat Mitzvah Reinterpreted

Patricia Keer Munro (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

232 Seiten

2016
Rutgers University Press (Verlag)
978-0-8135-7594-0 (ISBN)

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The Jewish practice of bar mitzvah dates back to the twelfth century, but this ancient cultural ritual has changed radically since then, evolving with the times and adapting to local conditions. For many Jewish-American families, a child’s bar mitzvah or bat mitzvah is both a major social event and a symbolic means of asserting the family’s ongoing connection to the core values of Judaism. Coming of Age in Jewish America takes an inside look at bar and bat mitzvahs in the twenty-first century, examining how the practices have continued to morph and exploring how they serve as a sometimes shaky bridge between the values of contemporary American culture and Judaic tradition. Interviewing over 200 individuals involved in bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies, from family members to religious educators to rabbis, Patricia Keer Munro presents a candid portrait of the conflicts that often emerge and the negotiations that ensue. In the course of her study, she charts how this ritual is rife with contradictions; it is a private family event and a public community activity, and for the child, it is both an educational process and a high-stakes performance. Through detailed observations of Conservative, Orthodox, Reform, and independent congregations in the San Francisco Bay Area, Munro draws intriguing, broad-reaching conclusions about both the current state and likely future of American Judaism. In the process, she shows not only how American Jews have forged a unique set of bar and bat mitzvah practices, but also how these rituals continue to shape a distinctive Jewish-American identity.

PATRICIA KEER MUNRO is a visiting scholar at the Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies in Berkeley, California.

Acknowledgments1 It’s Not Duddy Kravitz’s Bar Mitzvah Anymore: Bar/Bat Mitzvah in the Twenty-First Century2 Describing the Context: Congregations and Bar/Bat Mitzvah Service3 Students and Parents, Rabbis and Teachers: Different Roles, Different Standpoints4 Variations on a Theme: Different Meanings and Motives5 What If I Drop the Torah? From Learning to Doing Judaism6 What Are They Doing on the Bimah? Setting Boundaries around Bar/Bat Mitzvah Participation7 Whose Bimah Is It, Anyway? Public Shabbat Service or Private Bar/Bat Mitzvah Ritual8 A Very Narrow Bridge: Bar/Bat Mitzvah and Connecting to the Jewish FutureMethodological AppendixNotesReferencesIndex

Erscheinungsdatum	03.06.2016
Zusatzinfo	5 tables
Verlagsort	New Brunswick NJ
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	513 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Judentum
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Spezielle Soziologien
ISBN-10	0-8135-7594-X / 081357594X
ISBN-13	978-0-8135-7594-0 / 9780813575940
Zustand	Neuware