Alef: The NEXT Conversation

A Bat Mitzvah in Lake Oswego, OR (503)

by Natasha Feldman

If it sounds like a Bat Mitzvah, feels like a Bat Mitzvah, smells like the delicious post Bat Mitzvah lunch, but there is a giant cross in the corner and a large Protestant pulpit dominating the stage, is it still a Bat Mitzvah? In my little village of Anatevka… I mean Lake Oswego, Oregon, yes.

Growing up in a small town with a diminutive Jewish population, I was told repeatedly by my classmates that Jesus would send me straight to hell if I didn’t shape up and find room for him in my heart. Ironically, being told this over and over again was one of the main factors that motivated me to become a Bat Mitzvah. I always liked being different, and because Judaism was one of the many things that made me unique from my classmates, I quickly gravitated towards it.

The Jewish population in my town was so small that my parents had to schlep me clear into another town for Sunday school and wait around for hours while I sang songs, ate challah, and performed other Sunday school merriments. Our Sunday school met in a middle school, and, yes, you guessed it, our services were performed in a church.

I have a clear image in my head of the look and feel of the room in which my Bat Mitzvah service was performed. I can recall the giant grin on my parents’ faces, the perplexed look of my friends who couldn’t figure out why the pages in their books were backwards, the booming voice of the jolly Rabbi, and most of all, the giant cross with a Jewish flag laid over it.

We didn’t need a permanent house of worship, we didn’t need a traditional Sunday school, and I didn’t need to be surrounded by people who were familiar with the Bat Mitzvah ceremony. What I did need, was to be surrounded by people who I cared about, and to feel like I had accomplished my goal – I could read Hebrew, I could identify with the teachings, and I could share this all with the people that I loved.

To this day, people bring up how special my Bat Mitzvah was. I had relatives straight out of New York that had never been to a service that they had enjoyed more, and I had friends who had never attended a Jewish ceremony before that were jealous that they too could not have the same experience. The ceremony was so meaningful because the only things that mattered were the people in the room, the prayers, the songs, and the good feelings that we shared.

I couldn’t help but realize that my Bat Mitzvah was much more than a service for me; it was an important lesson in tolerance for all people. It was an opportunity and a memory of a lifetime, giant wooden cross and all.

Photo by Jason Rosenberg, licensed under Creative Commons.

Read more posts from Issue #13: Bar Mitzvah Season.

Read more posts from Issue #2: Area Codes.

Posted by Emily.Comisar@birthrightisraelnext.org, Friday, May 7th, 2010, 4:16 pm, Bar Mitzvah Season.