The Journey to My Adult Bat Mitzvah

At the grand age of forty-five my Bat Mitzvah (Torah portion read: Beshallach Chapter 13 V17 – Chapter 14 V14) was held on the Saturday, 3^rd February 2007. Which was also Tu B‘ Shevat and five days short of my forty-sixth birthday! Why wait so long, people asked? So I’ll explain a bit about my ‘journey‘.

I converted to Judaism when I was in my early 40’s. My daughter, Lily and I had started attending Blackpool Reform Synagogue and studied with Rabbi Norman Zalud. We both went before the Beth Din in London in February 2005 and our conversion was complete.

However my journey to Judaism began quite a few years before that. I wanted to convert, at the tender age of eighteen but felt I needed to experience life a bit more. I felt a strong resonance with the place (Israel) and people.

I was born in Hackney and grew up in a Jewish community. My mother was raised in Stamford Hill, a strong ultra Orthodox area. When I attended high school one of my teachers was Jewish and had lived in Israel. He talked passionately about his travels and became an inspirational mentor to me. My twin sister and I decided to go and work on a kibbutz when we left school in 1979. So I ended up in Israel at a kibbutz called Mizra just below Nazareth in the Jezreel Valley and overlooked by Mount Tabor.

Every morning, when I looked out of my window on the Kibbutz and went to work, there was Mount Tabor in all its beauty (an amazing connection to my Bat Mitzvah was the Haftorah I read, Judges, is about Deborah, Barak and Mount Tabor). I was also struck by the love of the land, so significant on Tu B’ Shevat - in my little room surrounded by cotton fields, citrus, pear and apple trees – all the fruit of the land.

So it seemed that my Bat Mitzvah carried on with these earlier themes and connections in my spiritual journey. It was a long journey and like the journey of the Hebrews on leaving Egypt it had its ups and downs and twists and turns. Like them I had to learn to trust Ha-Shem and carry on against obstacles and adversities. I’m glad I made it. My Bat Mitzvah helped me to consolidate my faith and membership of the family of Israel.

It has also been lovely to join the community of Southend and District Reform Synagogue. You have made Lily and I so welcome and for this I thank you and Rabbi Elf. May the synagogue experience many more Bat and Bar Mitzvahs – whatever age you are!

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