Terms like "bar mitzvah," "bet mitzvah," and "bat mitzvah" typically evoke images of teens reading from the Torah and formally taking their place within the Jewish community. But many Reform congregations offer adult b'nei mitzvah classes, enabling people to participate in this ritual later in life.

A brand-new baby is an astonishing being! How a tiny human could emerge from a mere bundle of cells, and the simple fact that any human being exists earthside, is truly remarkable.

As we head into the holiday season, I am acutely aware of how much different this year is going to be than previous ones. I will be celebrating without my mom for the first time. My mother died in January 2021, and I'm still dealing with the unexpected waves of grief that wash over me, sometimes out of nowhere. As I head into this first winter holiday season without her, I'm not quite sure I know what to expect, other than everything is going to be very different.

As a child snoop, I was well acquainted with the contents of my parents’ dresser drawers. This came in handy often, like the night before a trip when my mom panicked because she couldn’t find her passport.

In the weeks leading up to my civil divorce, I delved into Jewish tradition to see how I could mark it Jewishly. I'd been married under a chuppah with the exquisite blessings of our tradition; simply marking my divorce in the Cook County courthouse was not going to suffice.

When I found out I was pregnant, my mind was immediately filled with questions and plans. When my son Logan was born at 34 weeks, many of those plans quickly changed.

North American Reform mohalim are trained and certified by the Brit Milah Board of Reform Judaism and supported by the National Organization of American Mohalim, (NOAM), which works to make the practice of b'rit milahan available, meaningful, and relevant Jewish lifecycle ritual for families.

I became bat mitzvah on October 27, 2018. It was both one of the best and worst days of my life. At the same time I was on the bima at my home congregation of Temple Emanuel in Greensboro, NC, a gunman at another community in Pittsburgh walked into the Tree of Life Synagogue and killed 11 Jewish people.

My Hebrew name is Emunah, and I have autistic spectrum disorder (ASD).