From The Masorti Foundation for Conservative Judaism in Israel

There are nine young Israeli women who never expected to celebrate a bat mitzvah. But thanks to their experience with Jewish life here in the US as emissaries this past year – a far cry from their “secular” homes in the Afula-Gilboa region in Israel and the predominant Orthodox practice funded by the Israeli government – the nine have reconnected with their Jewish identity and learned there is another way to observe Jewish law and tradition.It is the Masorti way: open, tolerant, egalitarian, pluralistic.

In fact, more than half of the bnot mitzvah took place in Conservative synagogues in communities in Connecticut and central Massachusetts where the young women were living and working for a year of national service prior to enlistment in the IDF. They are participants in the Israeli Young Emissary Program, jointly sponsored by Southern New England Consortium (SNEC) and the Jewish Agency for Israel. The federation consortium is partnered with Afula-Gilboa. (The other ceremonies took place at one Reconstructionist and two Reform congregations.)

Unfamiliar with many aspects of Jewish life practiced in a context of openness, tolerance, pluralism and modernity, the young women broadened their view of religious observance working in the SNEC Jewish community in day schools and after-school congregational schools; with youth groups; and in homes for the elderly.

“When I was 12-years-old, I did not have a bat mitzvah. I did not even know girls could read from the Torah. But today, when I am 18-years-old, I got my second chance to become a bat mitzvah,” Hadas Nafshi told the Shabbat morning crowd at Beth Tikvah Synagogue, a Conservative congregation in Westborough, Massachusetts. In her dvar Torah on Parshat Parah/Ki Tissa, delivered from the bimah, she compared herself to the Jewish people, who got a second chance after committing the sin of the Golden Calf.

Hadas Nafshi became a bat mitzvah at Beth Tikvah Synagogue in Westborough, MA.

Hadas continued, “I can safely say my Jewish identity got stronger. In Israel, I was going to synagogue several times a year. Since arriving ... I have been in seven different synagogues so many times that I cannot even count. I have learned a lot of new blessings and prayers that I did not know before….this bat mitzvah is probably the most Jewish experience I have ever had and also maybe the most exciting experience of my life.”

Brazilian-born kibbutznik Karen Brustein, who celebrated her bat mitzvah at Temple Bnai Jacob, a Conservative congregation in Woodbridge, near New Haven, Connecticut, put it this way in her dvar Torah: “I was delighted to find something that back home is very rare – another way to practice the religion, a modern way that keeps the traditions and is aware to the world and to the people in its community. It fitted perfectly my views of equality, progress, education, pride of being a Jew…. I feel so honored to read in the Torah today and be a bond in this endless great chain which is called Judaism. We are a proof that everything is possible.”

Most of the bnot mitzvah welcomed visiting Israeli family for their special occasion, reflecting the potential ripple effect of their experiences. In fact, in one case, there was an unexpected and joyful turn of events as Sarai Barzel’s father came to the bimah and led the Shavuot musaf service at the Conservative Emanuel Synagogue in West Hartford, Connecticut.

The hope and expectation is that once back home, the emissaries’ religious lives will be transformed and their connection to Masorti will deepen. According to Sharon Reisman Conway, the director of SNEC’s Israeli Young Emissary Program, all the young women considered this opportunity “a privilege and a gift.”