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REGISTRATION and the Coat Room are on the 27th Floor along with many of the sessions. The Children’s Program, Lunch Room, Limmud Café and rooms E1, G3 and G4 are on the 16th Floor. There is easy access between the floors by 6 large elevators.
Sunday, March 19 • 10:00 - 10:45
Bar Mitzvah Disco!

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Unlike the bris, wedding and funeral which have clear guidelines and halakhic norms, the bar mitzvah is a wild card. The rite has no precedent in Scripture and merits barely any mention in rabbinic literature. Its history emerged from a patchwork of rabbinic sources, improvised practices, and cultural appropriations. And yet, of all the life cycle events, it has the biggest cultural footprint. From a small private event in medieval Europe, it has morphed into its triumphal apotheosis in North America. Even non-Jews are having bar mitzvahs. I will explore the history of this rite, explore its present-day manifestations, and consider what might be done with (or about) this religious and cultural phenomenon - if at all.
Presenters
avatar for Dan Mendelsohn Aviv

Dan Mendelsohn Aviv

Dr. Dan Mendelsohn Aviv has been engaged in Jewish learning as an educator, lecturer, professor, published scholar and author for almost twenty-five years. He hosts TanakhCast, a rollicking bi-weekly podcast about the Bible. He is also the author of End Of The Jews: Radical Breaks... Read More →

Sunday March 19, 2017 10:00 - 10:45 EDT
S7 27th Floor
  Contemporary Questions   Jewish Communities Past Present & Future   NextGen

Attendees (7)