metro » j ews in the digita l a ge Tech Tools For The Bar & Bat Mitzvah S crolling through my Facebook feed lessons, blessings and full readings for stu- a few weeks ago, I noticed that the dents. In many cases, it is the family unaf- young woman whose bat mitzvah filiated with a congregation who is looking I officiated just weeks after being ordained to use technology for training, and there are as a rabbi a dozen years ago had no shortage of options. walked down the aisle as a bride. However, with busy extracur- That, combined with the realization ricular schedules for the teens and my oldest child will become a bar hectic work responsibilities for mitzvah early next year, caused me parents, it is often easier for teens to feel nostalgic and also to consider to be trained at home in front of how the bar and bat mitzvah train- a screen. ing process has changed over the All of these new options mean years. congregations need to keep track While the bar mitzvah ceremony Rabbi Jason of where and how their teens are Miller is a relatively new institution in being trained. They also have to Judaism, it hasn’t changed much manage the entire process of train- in terms of what the bar mitzvah or bat ing and meeting the benchmarks in place mitzvah actually does in the synagogue ser- for the b’nai mitzvah program. vice. Of course, the ceremony differs from One rabbi in Canada is bringing the synagogue to synagogue, and what a girl is bar mitzvah management process into allowed to do for her bat mitzvah ceremony the Digital Age. Vancouver Rabbi Dan varies in Orthodox congregations and in Moskovitz has created a groundbreaking some Conservative congregations. b’nai mitzvah manage- What has certainly changed in recent ment platform to make years is how these Jewish teens are trained the process much easier for their coming-of-age ceremony and how for congregations using the synagogues handle the process. distance tutoring in a During my final year of rabbinical school, more personable way. I was serving a fledgling synagogue com- He is the rabbi of a large munity in northern Virginia while attending congregation; but as classes in New York City and living in New a hobby, he develops Rabbi Dan Jersey. The few b’nai mitzvah students I had software programs to Moskovitz to train that year met with me mostly over a help manage synagogue speaker phone. When I had the opportunity operations and educa- to meet these teens in person during one tion programs. He recently released Mitzvah of my weekend visits to the congregation, I Tools 2.0. realized how much of the important interac- MITZVAH TOOLS tion I was missing because I couldn’t see their faces during our tutoring sessions. The Many congregations across North America already hold subscriptions to the original technology to tutor them virtually through version of Mitzvah Tools, which is the first video conferencing was not yet available. cloud-based management system for b’nai NEW TECH OPTIONS mitzvah. Over the years, congregations of Today, many b’nai mitzvah tutors are train- all sizes have relied on this desktop app ing Jewish teens who live hundreds or even to maintain recordings of Torah readings, thousands of miles away thanks to the schedule appointments with students, track advent of such video conferencing apps as tutoring notes, participation honors and Skype, Google Hangouts, Zoom and Apple handle assignments. Thirteen years later, FaceTime. Even beyond these communica- Moskovitz has teamed up with a cantor to tion apps, other technological tools allow augment the original software. for a more interactive bar mitzvah training The new version of Mitzvah Tools is experience. completely cloud-based and mobile friendly. Many online tutors use the Trope Trainer It promises to transform the bar and bat application, a computer software that has mitzvah educational process for congrega- 22 July 28 • 2016 Mitzvah Tools tions, making critical information and valuable resources easily accessible to tutors, clergy, students and parents. Rabbis, can- tors and bar mitzvah tutors can use the Mitzvah Tools app to make multimedia-rich assignments and tasks for students, main- tain service notes, schedule appointments, initiate video chats for remote learning and maintain their congregation’s own limitless online resource bank of audio, video and text files accessible to each student at any time. “The expectations placed upon the b’nai mitzvah in the training process have not changed much in several generations, but the students, educators and parents have changed dramatically,” Moskovitz explains. “Students now have more demands on their time. Mitzvah Tools allows students to study wherever and whenever they can with all of their materials right on their phones, including initiating a Skype/FaceTime ses- sion with a tutor with just a click of a but- ton.” For parents who are managing multiple calendars and projects, Mitzvah Tools helps them organize. The app syncs appoint- ment calendars, online scheduling, instant threaded messaging with the education team and an online resource bank that has every kernel of information about the b’nai mitzvah process. Moskovitz points out that with today’s prevalence of intermarriage in the Jewish community, many parents of Jewish teens did not experience the bar or bat mitzvah training process in their youth so an appli- cation like Mitzvah Tools is helpful in that regard as well. For educators, Mitzvah Tools provides one place for notes, files, assignments, cal- endar, honors during the service and impor- tant contact information. In a previous gen- eration, many tutors kept a binder, which was never seen by rabbis or cantors. Now, however, everyone can be on the same page. In multi-clergy/multi-tutor environments, this is an extremely helpful program. “Until Mitzvah Tools came along, in order to keep track of the more than 100 students under my supervision or tutoring, I had to carry around a four-inch ring binder, in which each child had their own pages,” said Cantor Mark Britowich of Temple Judea in California. “With Mitzvah Tools, I manage these students easily. Everything I need to know is visible on whatever device I use, and I maintain each child’s file so that everyone on our staff can see exactly what the student is working on.” Mitzvah Tools is the perfect solution for distance learning. With an online project management system, remote video chat and threaded discussions between students and educator, the tutoring room in now in the cloud. In small, rural communities in which it is challenging to find bar mitzvah tutors, an online tutor can be engaged and, through Mitzvah Tools, the rabbi or other congrega- tional designate can monitor the student’s progress from the online dashboard and join in the process every step of the way. “Mitzvah Tools has been such a huge help for our son and his bar mitzvah studies,” said Sharon Goldberg of Florida. “Having all of his recordings online and being able to schedule or reschedule his tutoring sessions from my phone makes it so much easier to stay on top of this whole process.” Young Jewish teens will continue to cele- brate their b’nai mitzvah ceremonies as their grandparents did before them, but the prep- aration process has changed, thanks to new technology. Online training websites and virtual tutors will become the norm for how many teens prepare for their milestone event in the Jewish lifecycle. New applications like Mitzvah Tools will help ensure the process is organized and managed appropriately. * Rabbi Jason Miller is an educator, entrepreneur and blogger. He is president of Access Computer Technology in West Bloomfield. Follow him on Twitter at @RabbiJason.