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Role Models

Mothers realize a dream in
celebrating b'not mitzvah

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR

Special to SourceBook

Nancy Scheer of Huntington
Woods reads from the torah.

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sourcebook 2000 •

t happens all of the time. People return to a
more active practice of Judaism when they
have children. That's when the reality hits:
They are expected to be role models and
know more than their kids do about their
studies.
Some parents may take a class or two
to brush up on the basics and learn
enough to take over hosting a holiday,
but it is rarer when adults decide to do
the whole shebang — take classes on the
holidays, and learn or re-learn how to
speak and read Hebrew.
Those who do, however, often redis-
cover a passion for the religion they are
passing on to their offspring.
That is what made May 13 at Temple
Emanu-El in Oak Park so special: Six
mothers from the congregation celebrat-
ed their b'not mitzvah.
Huntington Woods residents
Robin Gold, Gail Gilman,
Natalie Lapin and Nancy
Scheer, as well as Cindy
Schwartz of Birmingham and
Debbie Silver of Franklin,
ascended the bima and read
from the Torah. The event
marked their completion of a
course of study to become
ballot Torah, masters of the
Torah, or what's more common-
ly called having an "adult bat mitzvah."
Two other women from their class had
individual celebrations earlier.
"I didn't make it easy for them," said
Temple Emanu-El Rabbi Joe Klein. "It
was really a challenge for them to com-
plete the goals I expected of them. I am
particularly proud of them for not only
accepting the challenge but for staying
with it." He cited the "effort, sincerity
and dedication" they demonstrated in
reaching this milestone.

Some of the women, who are all in
their 40s, met through their children's
enrollment in the Temple Emanu-El
Nursery School. Others in the class linked
up through committee work with the
temple's Young Family Shabbat program.
These involved mothers had an urge to
learn more about the Judaism they were
bestowing upon their children and a desire
to complete the religious education that
stopped for nearly all of them just short of
what is now bat mitzvah age.
"I think we all came to this enlighten-
ment at once," Robin Gold said.
Approaching Rabbi Klein as a group,
they urged him to teach them Hebrew
and how to read from the Torah and
lead the prayer service. He was more
than happy to oblige.
Educational programs for adults who
missed an earlier opportunity have been
around for nearly as long as the bat mitz-
vah ceremony itself. Most of the larger
congregations, both Reform and
Conservative, have regularly scheduled
classes for these candidates that last up to
two years; other temples and synagogues
organize study programs as the need aris-
es. Men who never became a bar mitzvah
also participate in such classes.
Prior to becoming b'not mitzvah, the
Emanu-El women joined Rabbi Klein
every Sunday morning for at least a year,
longer for others. They crammed them-
selves into his study to learn Hebrew, the
prayers and the order of the service.
Meanwhile, their children were in class-
rooms down the hall, learning and strug-
gling with the same topics.

MOTIVATING FACTORS

The women expressed varying reasons
for taking on this challenge. Some did it
for themselves because they had missed