No matter how you celebrate your child’s B Mitzvah, it will be filled with an incredible array of memories. Whether you’re hosting a luncheon or a big rager, the day will be filled with pride, love, and joy as you watch your child be called to the Torah. If you are looking for a unique way to celebrate this occasion, a trip to Israel will make the whole experience even more memorable.
Deciding to Have a Bat Mitzvah in Israel
When my daughter got her Bat Mitzvah date four years ago she immediately declared she wanted a trip to Israel instead of a party. She felt a connection to the land and thought visiting it was a superb way to celebrate this momentous occasion. Cut to a year before her date and guess what – she now wanted a party too, but that’s another story.
Visiting Israel is life changing at any age, but to go on the precipice of becoming a Jewish adult is very powerful. It is a tangible way to see what one is learning in Hebrew school and (quite possibly) what one is talking about in their Torah or Haftorah portions.
Planning A Bat Mitzvah in Israel
A typical Israel trip is filled with archeological digs, hikes in biblical parks, and food grown from the land. Whether you’re planning a first-time trip on a big bus tour or setting out with just the family, there’s no shortage of incredible sites to visit or things to do. Especially if you’ve already had a B Mitzvah celebration back home in the States, the Israel ceremony is one of many formative experiences you’ll have during your trip.
Many who travel to Israel for a B Mitzvah have their ceremony on the top of Masada, a historic mountaintop village where ancient Jewish rebels resisted against the Roman Empire. The other most popular B Mitzvah spot is at the Kotel, the Western Wall. We had our most meaningful experience of our trip working with The Western Wall Heritage Foundation to arrange a ceremony in a special tunnel that runs under the Kotel. The Foundation was fantastic to work with and offered us exactly this. They had many Bat Mitzvahs and Bar Mitzvah options for parties of any size including a 30-minute ceremony at the Wall for no cost!
Day Of the Bat Mitzvah in Israel
We arrived at the Kotel on our first full day in Israel. It was a great introduction to the country, our history, and a fantastic launch point for the trip. After researching the different service options, we decided to do the Light In The Heart program in one of their private rooms. We also chose to couple the ceremony with a tunnel tour.
Kotel Tunnel Tours
We began our day with the Foundation’s incredible tunnel tour. Open within the last few decades (so chances are if you visited the Kotel as a teenager, they weren’t open yet), they tell the history of the Wall from underground. As we descended, we saw an entire infrastructure that existed thousands of years ago. Even cooler – our guide showed us the hole in the ceiling where the excavators initially came in to find everything below them. This was by far one of the highlights of our trip and a remarkable way to connect us not only to Israel but to the ancient Israel of the Second Temple Period.
Connecting History to The Bat Mitzvah Ceremony
We worked with a private Bat Mitzvah guide who broke down the connection between the ancient Kotel structure and our living history today. She explained that similarly to many places in Israel, they are finding new – old – stuff every day. Having just seen the incredible tunnels below the Kotel, she took us to another place not yet open to the public- an active excavation site where they found the ancient market for which they have been searching for years!
The history all intertwined as we took in how our daughter would not only celebrate her Bat Mitzvah under the Wall – surrounded by thousands of years of history – but she would be doing a mitzvah project as well. She would be decorating a pair of glass candles with one going home with us, and the other going to a Holocaust survivor who was not able to celebrate her Bat Mitzvah because of the war. This tangible souvenir would forever remind her that she is not only blessed to be here today but blessed to be here today.
Next, we watched a video of first-person accounts of soldiers entering the city and reclaiming Jerusalem during the Six-Day War in 1967. Upon the video’s conclusion we marveled at the enormity of sitting where we were at that moment before returning to the table – filled with emotions – to continue the program. Since becoming a Bat Mitzvah is about becoming a Jewish adult, we wrote notes to our daughter to read in the future – as an adult – on the Kotel’s special postcards. Finally, we blessed her and sang some happy songs. We concluded with my son’s favorite part – throwing soft candy at her.
In addition to the candle we brought home, our guide presented her with a beautiful sterling silver Kotel necklace as well as a Bat Mitzvah certificate.
This ceremony was such a unique way to start our trip and such a meaningful way to couple historic Israel with the future of the Jewish people – our children. When we ascended back to the Western Wall Plaza, looking at the Kotel had a more profound meaning to us, and it was such a powerful moment.
With so many different ways to celebrate becoming a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, a trip to Israel is the perfect option for those who are adventurous, curious, and looking to connect more deeply to the history of the Jewish people. While you can have a dance party any day of the year, a trip like this is truly once in a lifetime.
