Raising the Bar Mitzvah: Reimagining What Our Kids Learn

(Paperback)

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Description

What could be more ingrained in the Jewish psyche as well as pop culture everywhere than the Bnei Mitzvah ceremony
For generations, families have joined synagogues and schlepped their kids to lessons. These hapless pre-teens struggle with cracking voices and unfamiliar melodies, fight with their parents about time spent practicing, and eventually face a couple hundred of their closest friends and relatives to sing for a couple hours in a foreign language. The current model of Bnei Mitzvah training does not resonate with most 13-year-old kids. They do it because they know they have to do it. Their parents and grandparents went through the same thing.
Its time to re-evaluate how our kids learn and prepare to be knowledgeable and engaged members of the Jewish community. Raising the Bar Mitzvah is the book that will lead Jewish professionals as well as lay congregants on a more productive and meaningful path.

Reviews

Raising the Bar Mitzvah contributes to the discourse about the mission and execution of children's Jewish education in religiously liberal communities. Written accessibly, Cantor Matt Axelrod advocates for greater flexibility for the ceremony and preparation as the best way to encourage living a life of Jewish value. -- Roberta Rosenthal Kwall, Raymond P. Niro Professor, DePaul University College of Law and author of Remix Judaism: Preserving Tradition in a Diverse World and The Myth of the Cultural Jew: Culture and Law in Jewish Tradition
Cantor Axelrod has dared to grapple with a central truth of Judaism: the bar or bat mitzvah ceremony is broken in all sorts of ways, but since people hate change, and Jews are people, nobody wants to fix it. Axelrod has seen a better way, and if we can open our eyes and ears to his suggestions, our children will be the beneficiaries. -- Mark Oppenheimer, author The Bar Mitzvah Crasher: Road-tripping through Jewish America
By breaking the b'nai mitzvah rite of passage down to its core goals and rethinking how they can be achieved, Cantor Axelrod is truly encouraging educators to 'raise the bar' and expand our thinking about this core touchpoint of Jewish engagement. Through this process, each community, family, and individual can explore their unique visions for the bar mitzvah, and build experiences that are personally meaningful and collectively impactful. -- Samantha Vinokor-Meinrath, associate director of adolescent initiatives for the Jewish Education Center of Cleveland

Author Bio

Cantor Matt Axelrod is the author of Surviving Your Bar/Bat Mitzvah: The Ultimate Insiders Guide and Your Guide to the Jewish Holidays: From Shofar to Seder. Cantor Axelrod serves as a national officer of the Cantors Assembly and has been a frequent presenter at synagogues, Jewish community centers, and conferences to speak to groups of parents and teens about the process of preparing for their Bnei Mitzvah.