re: #1310 EmmmieG

How long have Bat Mitzvahs been done? For ever, or is it a newer thing?

Most people say the first one was 1922 (Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan held one for his daughter), but there’s some record of earlier celebrations of one sort or another.

The legal term has been around longer, of course, you become a bat mitzvah, a legal adult, at twelve. (Boys at thirteen.) In the olden, olden days that mostly had to do with some religious responsibilities, and eligibility for marriage.