Product Description

Make Your Own Bar/Bat Mitzvah is using and inspiring guide that takes you step-by-step through the process of creating a very personal and meaningful Bar/Bat Mitzvah. This book offers a joyful and effective planning process that will help you produce a coming of age ritual filled with innovative ideas and sound guidance. Rabbi Goldie Milgram provides an effective, exciting process to help you organize this experience to meet your needs, in particular your studies, mentors, service, Torah talk, party, gifts and expressions of appreciation. Pragmatic and inspiring, this ground-breaking work will help students, families and communities to create healthy and memorably happy bar/bat mitzvah experiences.

Rabbi Goldie Milgram is spearheading the Bar/Bat Mitzvah Institute Initiative, developed under a grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation and focused upon creating more meaningful and effective ways of preparing students for bar/bat mitzvah. Author of Reclaiming Judaism as a Spiritual Practice: Holy Days and Shabbat, she is Founder and Executive Director of the non-profit educational research and training group, Pnai Yachadut and also runs the highly regarded web site family ReclaimingJudaism.org.

Reb Goldie Milgram is an extraordinary, creative, and wise teacher/mentor/guide/partner in the exploration of the Bar/Bat Mitzvah process. She takes the reader on a multi-dimensioned journey to discover various meaningful traditions and rituals and, in turn, to express them into a spiritually significant celebration. This book is the Bar/Bat Mitzvah's equivalent to What Color Is Your Parachute.
-Peninnah Schram, author, Stories One Generation Tells to Another

Rabbi Goldie Milgram restores relevance and spirituality to the process of becoming bar/bat mitzvah. Her guidance is delivered with great wisdom and compassion. I highly recommend this work.
-David A Cooper, author of God is a Verb

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #504705 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-01
• Released on: 2004-08-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Who wouldn't want to read a book that promises to transform parents from "taskmasters to team members supporting an exciting and motivated student" preparing for bar or bat mitzvah? B-Mitzvah (as Milgram dubs it, obviating long and clumsy alternatives) can be an empowering celebration customized to each individual's strengths and talents. Milgram's pioneering and much-tested methods include creating an 18-month to two-year action plan with a mission statement, strategies, charts, self-inventories and goals that clarify roles and responsibilities. Despite this businesslike approach, Milgram advocates "knowing yourself," finding "the prayer of your heart" and learning the language of your spirit. She even compares B-Mitzvah to Native American rites of initiation. To address the range of emotional, intellectual, spiritual and logistical aspects, chapters focus on developing a Jewish study plan; interpreting the assigned Torah portion; finding a mitzvah project; partying and sharing gifts and memories. Real-life examples from families and students bring her points home. Though the guide is geared to both children and adult B-Mitzvahs, the complex and time-consuming process may deter some 12-year-olds. Still, following even a few of Milgram's suggestions may enrich the celebration. Her unconventional wisdom rooted in tradition will help families navigate the B-mitzvah process so they can make the "hoped-for holiness" happen.
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Review
“This is a most valuable book to learn about Judaism for a Bar/Bat Mitzvah of any age!”
--Peninnah Schram, author, Jewish Stories, One Generation Tells Another

“Restores relevance and spirituality to the process of becoming Bar/Bat Mitzvah.”
--Rabbi David A. Cooper, author, God is a Verb

“Solid, wise and inviting. She does not preach, talk down, or every become boring. The sample divrei Torah are worth the price of admission.”
--Rabbi Nancy Fuchs Kreimer, author, Parenting as a Spiritual Journey

“Helps Bar and Bat Mitzvah students enhance their autonomy, thinking, creative engagement, Jewish identity and self esteem.”
--Ellen Weaver, psychotherapist, pastoral counselor, and Bar/Bat Mitzvah tutor, Woodstock Jewish Congregation

“I cherish this as a parent, educator, and impassioned adult Bat Mitzvah student. An invaluable tool to help transform this learning process into a joyous adventure.”
--Julia Indichova, author, Inconceivable and director, Fertile Heart Parenting Center

From the Inside Flap
Make Your Own Bar/Bat Mitzvah is using and inspiring guide that takes you step-by-step through the process of creating a very personal and meaningful Bar/Bat Mitzvah. This book offers a joyful and effective planning process that will help you produce a coming of age ritual filled with innovative ideas and sound guidance. Rabbi Goldie Milgram provides an effective, exciting process to help you organize this experience to meet your needs, in particular your studies, mentors, service, Torah talk, party, gifts and expressions of appreciation. Pragmatic and inspiring, this ground-breaking work will help students, families and communities to create healthy and memorably happy bar/bat mitzvah experiences.

Rabbi Goldie Milgram is spearheading the Bar/Bat Mitzvah Institute Initiative, developed under a grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation and focused upon creating more meaningful and effective ways of preparing students for bar/bat mitzvah. Author of Reclaiming Judaism: How to Recapture Meaning and Spirituality for Shabbat and the Jewish Holiday, she is Founder and Executive Director of the non-profit educational research and training group, P’nai Yachadut and also runs the highly regarded web site family ReclaimingJudaism.org.

“Reb Goldie Milgram is an extraordinary, creative, and wise teacher/mentor/guide/partner in the exploration of the Bar/Bat Mitzvah process. She takes the reader on a multi-dimensioned journey to discover various meaningful traditions and rituals and, in turn, to express them into a spiritually significant celebration. This book is the Bar/Bat Mitzvah's equivalent to What Color Is Your Parachute.”
-Peninnah Schram, author, Stories One Generation Tells to Another

“Rabbi Goldie Milgram restores relevance and spirituality to the process of becoming bar/bat mitzvah. Her guidance is delivered with great wisdom and compassion. I highly recommend this work.”
-David A Cooper, author of God is a Verb

Customer Reviews

No more cookie-cutter b'nai mitzvah
I take my Judaism seriously and wanted to be sure my son is getting the most out of his experience. This book freed our family from the bar mitzvah machine that our Temple has turned into and helped us come up with a bar mitzvah that is relevant to our Judaism. It is full of wonderful ideas - the only pitfall we keep coming to is keeping our "study sessions" of the schedule of things to do. Without having to make appointments, it's very easy to let things get pushed aside. I have already recommended this book to several of friends who are struggling with putting meaning into the process of bar/bat mitzvah prep.

a book that supports b mitzvahs as true rites of passage
Thank you Reb Goldie for your Bar/Bat Mitzvah book. I am delighted with it! At last a book that really supports the work I have been doing with B Mitzvah students toward making the whole process a true rite of passage and personal spiritual reflection.

Thanks so much!

Thank you Rabbi Goldie
This book is a true source of inspiration and information! For years I have struggled, wondering if hebrew school was the answer towards my childrens spiritual and educational jewish journey, always knowing something was missing. This book tells you everything that is missing, and is a great supplement, or replacement to any standard type of jewish learning. Besides Rabbi Goldie being a fabulous guide in this process, she also offers amazing resources of music, websites, software, and prayer books. I bought this book for myself and was so amazed and impressed that I bought more copies for everyone who is a part of my daughter's Bat-Mitzvah ceremony.