Lucy Henning, a long-standing member of the synagogue completed her Batmitzvah in June 2022 and expressed her feelings leading up to the big day:

“Discombobulated! Even this adjective probably doesn’t come close to doing justice as to how the Rabbi’s suggestion of doing my Batmitzvah made me feel.

“Fast forwarding 6 months, and now any adjective that I might choose to express my sentiments about my special day would most definitely be conveying a much more positive vibe!

“I can’t pretend that learning my torah portion was easy for me. By clinging on hard to my current favourite mantra (practice makes progress), I slowly managed to get to grips with the challenge. With perseverance, I gradually moved from stumbling through my Hebrew pronunciation to the goal of being able to read from the scroll.

“My advice to anyone thinking about having an adult Bar/Bat Mitzvah is to have faith in the process. Yes there will be highs and lows (or maybe that’s just me?!), but how wonderful to have the chance to forge another link in the chain and discover what one is capable of. A true privilege.”

Another member of the Shul and author Tamar Hodes, recently celebrated her 60th birthday by fulfilling her life-long dream to be batmitzvahed. Reading Hebrew however proved to be the biggest hurdle.

“I did read Hebrew before (slowly!) but reading from the Torah without vowels or punctuation was daunting at first. Rabbi Romain sent me a voice recording of my portion being read aloud and I learned that way. Then I practised with vowels and then without vowels. I already knew the Torah blessings and the Haftorah blessings too.
It was months of work but all worth it!”

Both Tamar and Lucy delivered very moving batmitzvahs to a room full of regular worshippers, family and friends. Mazel Tov!

If you are interested in finding out more about a Bar or Batmitzvah at any age, please do contact Rabbi Romain here.