Rites of Passage: Jewish Representations of Children and Childhood in Contemporary Cinema

Despite the great importance Judaism places on children, childhood is a curiously overlooked topic in Jewish film and television studies. This chapter proposes to begin filling the gap by exploring how the universal theme of childhood has been represented in more specific ways, focusing on Jewish cinema specifically. By exploring a series of representations of children and childhood (sometimes Jewish, sometimes not) up to and including the age of 13, it examines films dealing with the child en route to adulthood through the key rite of passage of bar/bat mitzvah; the child as vulnerable and in need of protection, but whose childhood is brutally cut short during the Holocaust; and films in which childhood is not explicitly Jewish but can be read thus. Such representations consider the condition of children and childhood as a comment on the Jewish condition in contemporary society.

The Transformation of the Bar Mitzvah Ceremony, 1800–2020

After discussing the pre-history of the bar mitzvah ceremony, this chapter analyzes four basic components of the ceremony before the year 1800: the Barukh sheptarani blessing; the aliyah to the Torah; the se’udat mitzvah (festive meal); and the derashah (sermon given by the bar mitzvah boy). The bulk of the chapter is devoted to six major changes that transpired after the year 1800: from bar mitzvah to Confirmation and back to bar and bat mitzvah; the origin and development of the bat mitzvah ceremony; the transformation of the elaborate derashah prepared by a teacher or rabbi to a much simpler devar torah prepared by the bar or bat mitzvah boy or girl; the transformation of a simple se’udat mitzvah into an elaborate party; the adoption of the Ashkenazic bar mitzvah ceremony by Sephardic and Oriental Jews; and the secular bar or bat mitzvah ceremony or party.