LUBAVITCHINTERNATIONAL
8
EDUCATION
Bat Mitzvah Redux
Girls Club Explores A Better Way to Celebrate the Bat Mitzvah
Julia is one of thousands of girls who’ve approached Jewish womanhood with the help of Bat Mitzvah Clubs International. Bat Mitzvah club members, Newton, PA.
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our years ago, when Julia Heifetz was nearing Bat Mitzvah, her mom, Beth, a Washington D.C. mother of two and a partner at Jones Day law firm, wanted more than schwag and partying.
“I wanted my daughter to have an opportunity to think about what it means to be a Bat Mitzvah and what it means to be a young Jewish woman today,” said Heifetz. Although Julia had been involved in Jewish life through their Conservative shul and at her Conservative temple, Heifetz was concerned that “the important role of Jewish women both historically and today can be overlooked.” So Beth took to the internet searching for resources to share with Julia. After stumbling across Bat Mitzvah Clubs International (BMC), she contacted the local Chabad representative Nechama Shemtov, and worked with her to put together a group of girls, find leaders, and launch a chapter of the Bat Mitzvah Club. According to a 2001 Jewish Adolescent Study by the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University, in which nearly 1,300 Bat and Bar Mitzvah boys and girls from Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, and independent congregations were surveyed in Eastern Massachusetts, three-quarters of the respondents
cared seriously about a search for meaning in life, but only 40 percent sought to find that meaning through their Jewishness. After her Bat Mitzvah, Julia wanted to continue her Jewish involvement, and with Shemtov’s help, they established a local chapter of Friendship Circle. Now 16, the experience continues in Julia’s life, shaping her identity and sense of self as a Jewish woman. For the past four years, Julia and a friend have spent time every week during the school year with a boy who has special needs. “It has been a remarkable growth experience for her on many levels, including responsibility, planning, time management, the importance of giving to others, and the wonderful feeling that comes with doing the right thing,” Heifetz said. Julia is one of thousands of girls who’ve approached Jewish womanhood with the help of Bat Mitzvah Clubs International. Created 20 years ago by Esti Frimerman, a Brooklyn mother of a large family and a Hebrew school teacher, BMC aims to reach Jewish girls in their formative years with a powerful message. “My objective is to help these girls tap into the spiritual dimension of their personality,” Frimerman said. Frimerman took a concept from Chabad Chasidic doctrine about a G-dly soul that becomes complete at the age of Bar-Bat mitzvah, and
created a program for 11-13 year olds at the flagship Chabad girls school, Beth Rivkah, in Brooklyn. She developed a curriculum with a focus on Jewish feminine identity. Soon after, in 1993, she got a request from Tzivos Hashem International to rethink the program for secular public school girls, and Bat Mitzvah Clubs International was born. Herself a mother of five daughters, Frimerman knows “that turf very well,” and enjoys the challenge of reaching this demographic with eye-opening, enduring ideas. Through thoughtfully devised activities and discussion, “the girls discover for themselves the wisdom that will see them through this time and as they get older.” Stephanie Blitshtein, who went through Bat Mitzvah Club in Plano, Texas, in 2007, said that being part of the program changed her.
experience at the BMC, would only date Jewish men. We’ve had calls from girls getting married, who remember what they learned about mikvah, or about setting up a Jewish home, and they want to incorporate that into their lives,” she said. Prompted by a desire to learn more about Judaism, Helena Rosenstrauch, now 20 and preparing for her senior year at the University of Buffalo, joined the Albany, NY BMC in 2002. The opportunity, she said, had a “great impact” on her. “Jewish values continue to guide my life, and I know that they always will thanks to my upbringing and the BMC.” Rosenstrauch said her participation in the club brought her closer to her mother and her grandmother, and she now is as involved as ever in her campus Chabad and Hillel.
“BMC taught me what it meant to become Bat Mitzvah and the responsibilities that came along with that.” The program, she said, also gave her Jewish knowledge in terms of practical mitzvot that empowered her to ramp up her observance and her involvement in the Jewish community.
In Munich, Germany, Chanie Diskin saw the power of the program after teaching fifth, sixth, and seventh graders in the public school system, and hearing how they celebrated their Bat Mitzvah. “I knew that I needed to become proactive,” she said. “I needed to impart meaning into their otherwise meaningless disco party celebrations.”
As Frimerman had hoped, the BMC has proven an enduring impact on critical life choices the girls make later in life. “We’ve had calls from girls who as a result of their
Diskin brought the Club to Germany, where she expanded it for teenagers because so many girls wanted to continue learning. “As a result, many girls have opted for a