Changing Patterns of North American Bar Mitzvah Towards a History and Sociological Analysis


 

Publication Date: December 1984

Publisher: Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association

Author(s): Stuart Schoenfeld

Research Area: Culture and religion

Keywords: North American Jews

Type: Report

Abstract:

This paper moves bar mitzvah to the center of attention, examining the historical development of the concept and attendant ceremonies, interpreting it as a socio-cultural drama in which larger issues of Jewish life are articulated and somehow dealt with. As notes for social history, the paper identifies the main features of the ceremony's evolution.