I was not supposed to like Netflix’s “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.” Here is why. Some 30 years ago, I created my own rabbinical cottage industry — observing and critiquing bar/bat mitzvah ...
"Your bat mitzvah is the first day of your adult life," Stacy Friedman says via voiceover at the beginning of You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah. "And everyone knows an iconic adult life hinges ...
The Jewish ceremony can be the setting for a sharp look at growing up. But it has too often been used for glosses that ignore the rite’s deeper meaning. By Esther Zuckerman In the Jewish faith you ...
My favorite photo of my dad at his 1957 bar mitzvah shows him, tuxedoed but clearly pre-pubescent, proudly holding a sign that reads, “Today, I Am a Man.” The bar or bat mitzvah as an overnight ...
Open your heart and turn off your logic meter and you‘re going to enjoy “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.” You don’t have to be Jewish — or 13 years old — to appreciate this warmly wacky ...
Sometimes a movie hits you so aggressively Jewish, you're transported back to your own coming-of-age Hebrew school experience −a time when the weekly status symbol was whether you were wearing that ...
As Jews, we celebrate adulthood at age 12 or 13. And while that may have once felt like adulthood, in the modern world, tweens are not considered grown-ups. Instead, b’nai mitzvah mark the beginning ...
Adam Sandler as Danny Friedman and Idina Menzel as Bree Friedman in You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah. Credit: Image via Netflix This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA ...
A pair of Jewish congregations in Palm Beach hosted bat mitzvah ceremonies this month for more than 20 women who had limited opportunity to celebrate when they were teenagers. The Chabad House Palm ...
I looked like a cupcake at my 1986 bat mitzvah. I was wearing a puffy, pink satin-and-white lace dress from Dandelion, a small boutique in Marblehead, Mass. where all my bunkmates from Camp Pembroke ...
They say a boy’s best friend is his mother. For director Nathan Silver, she’s also his muse. The comedy is loosely inspired by Cindy’s experience as a culturally Jewish woman, who at 68, enrolled at ...
It was impossible to distinguish who was happier or prouder: The 10 elderly Los Angeles Jewish Health (LAJH) residents celebrating their bar and bat mitzvahs, or LAJH CEO and President Dale Surowitz.