"Growing up, my father was my role model and he is still my role model until today," Boudjnak recalled with great pleasure. "My father taught me when I was a child that the day of my bar mitzvah was finally the day when I was going to be a man and have the same responsibility that he has." A highlight during the time Boudjnak was preparing for his bar mitzvah was a trip with his father to New York City to meet the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. "The Rebbe gave me a special blessing wishing me much success. Meeting the Rebbe definitely influenced the way I was going to make my life, especially because all of his life he was not only a man of words but also a man of action." Roberts said her bat mitzvah "was not the highlight of my life kind of experience," but quite to the contrary. It consisted of "the opportunity to chant the Haftarah and

Rabbi Chalom Boudjnak as bar mitzvah

give a speech at a Friday night service at the Conservative synagogue I grew up in. The cantor met with me once to give me a tape and once to check in and instruct me in how to dress modestly enough.

"What I do remember is the oppressive feeling that I ought to be studying my Haftarah at all times, but procrastinating so that the pressure that built up was almost unbearable. This has influenced me to pressure my students to study a few minutes every day."

Rabbi Avram Bogopulsky of Beth Jacob Congregation, an Orthodox congregation, views bar and bat mitzvahs as a religious activity that has been a constant over the centuries. On the other hand, Rabbi Laurie Coskey, a Reform rabbi who leads Chavurah Kol Haneshema in addition to directing the Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, considers bar/bat mitzvah to be an evolving
ceremony, reflecting the changes in society.

Bogopulsky recalled that his teachers "were very patient with me and always expressed the notion to do my best. That is all I ask of my students today, to be responsible in studying and giving 100 percent effort and doing the best job that you can do."

He said "I try to keep the ceremony and religious aspect of a bar/bat mitzvah to be no different than it was 10 years ago, 20 years ago or 50 years ago or 2,000 years ago."

Coskey said that her bat mitzvah "was an incredibly moving experience ... I remember crying through the entire service. I was able to speak and chant just fine, but tears kept streaming down my cheeks. I think that I felt deeply touched by the connection with our heritage and my own family. ³I was the first girl in our extended family ever to become a bat mitzvah.... In those days, 1970, only men were called to an aliyah before the Torah and of course only men were rabbis and cantors. I loved being surrounded by my father, grandfather and uncles. It would never have occurred to us to ask the women to make that blessing. "Today," Coskey continued, "women and men are officiants and full participants in Jewish ritual. That"s a wonderful change. As a rabbi, I work more closely with my students and their families than did the rabbi who served our congregation.

PASSING THE TORAH < The future Rabbi Laurie Coskey is given a Torah by her father, Hal, as Rabbi Meyer Heller and Cantor Edward Krawl watch during a 1970 bat mitzvah ceremony at Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills.

"I think that families are different today. Often the event is influenced by issues of interfaith families, single-parent families, blended families, multiple parents and grandparents, gay families, lesbian families and families who live great distances from one another, to name a few.

"The reflection of today's Jewish community in the ritual of bar and bat mitzvah shows new images of family life. The event, the ritual and the celebration can facilitate exciting, warm and meaningful family gatherings."

Rabbi Baruch Lederman of Congregation Kehillas Torah, an Orthodox congregation, said the bar/bat mitzvahs that he conducts today are the same as the one he had, "with one major difference: When I was a bar mitzvah, we did not give a speech. I can¹t remember any of my friends giving a speech, either. I don¹t know if this is a difference in the times or just a New
York/California difference.

"I work hard with the kids and make them work hard, too, but I don¹t give them more than they can handle. When my kids finish, they have a sense of accomplishment. They understand what they are talking about and they feel proud that they have constructed a speech. I guide them, but I don't do it for them."

One thing about bar mitzvahs "that¹s the same and that will never change is the wonderful, warm and emotional feeling of pride the whole family experiences — that¹s the essence," Lederman added.

Rabbi Tamar Malino of Temple Adat Shalom, a Reform congregation, agreed with
Lederman's view about the warmth of family.

Malino recalled that for her own bat mitzvah, "I studied for a long time, partially at the synagogue and partially with my father. This was a very powerful experience for me. Having the whole family and community around me, it was wonderful. I remember feeling very spiritual and see that today, too. This was one of the things that influenced me to become a rabbi."

Today, Malino commented, bar/bat mitzvah services "seem more personalized" than when she was growing up. "Services here have more contemporary music and songs."

Not all the family memories from a bar mitzvah will be warm and happy. Rabbi Philip Graubart of Congregation Beth El, a Conservative congregation, said one painful memory about his own bar mitzvah was that "it was the last simcha my family celebrated together as a family." Before the bar mitzvah, his parents made a decision to divorce, but to not announce it until after the bar mitzvah. Nevertheless, Graubart knew his parents' breakup was coming and therefore "was very conscious of what a poignant and sad occasion we were all facing."

"My own bar mitzvah taught me to be especially sensitive to family dynamics," Graubart said. "A bar/bat mitzvah is not just a transitional occasion in a child's life, it's a momentous occasion for the entire family. Along with the obvious joy that everyone feels, there are strong undercurrents of anxiety, fear and, depending on the circumstances of the individual family, genuine sadness.

"I feel that it¹s my role as a rabbi to acknowledge the existence of these darker emotions and allow the ceremony — or at least the preparation for the ceremony— to reflect how everyone is feeling."

Rabbi Martin Lawson of Temple Emanu-El, a Reform congregation, disclosed that his bar mitzvah "was a rather difficult experience for me. My father had died suddenly of a heart attack just a year and a half before my bar mitzvah. Our family was still coping with his absence and the financial impact. Then, just one month before my bar mitzvah, my favorite uncle who was going to 'stand in¹ for my father also died suddenly. This cast a real shadow over the entire ceremony." Lawson said in the Miami Beach congregation where he grew up, ³I had been the junior cantor of the congregation for several years, so I really enjoyed chanting my Haftorah (as we called it in Ashkenazi Hebrew). ... I did not actually read/chant from the Torah.  The cantor did that.  I

Rabbi Martin Lawson at his bar mitzvah

simply chanted the Torah blessings, chanted the Haftorah and delivered a brief talk about
the Haftorah dealing with Samson."

After becoming a rabbi, "I definitely decided that all of our students at Temple Emanu-El would lead much more of the service and understand what they are saying. It was because of my experience that I devised our system where each student looks up each word in their Torah portion in a Hebrew/English dictionary. They work out their own translation of the Torah portion and translate it "at sight" from the sefer Torah. One of my goals is to make our students Jewishly literate so that they can go to college or any synagogue in the world and understand what is occurring."

In some instances, bar/bat mitzvah candidates excel well beyond their classmates, perhaps providing for them the first inkling that they might someday become rabbis.

Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal of Tifereth Israel Synagogue, a Conservative congregation, said one of the highlights of his own bar mitzvah was "reading from the Torah. I learned trop and read the entire parasha, which was quite unusual in those days. It is more common for bar/bat mitzvah candidates to read more of the Torah reading today at their services. I encourage kids to
lead as much of the service as they can, in the same way that I was encouraged."

Rosenthal said today, while a student prepares for bar mitzvah, "there is a greater emphasis on doing mitzvah projects than in my youth. A greater emphasis is also put on a child continuing his or her Jewish education."

Rabbi Ted Riter of Temple Solel, a Reform congregation, said he grew up in College Station, Tex., when there were perhaps only 40 Jewish families in the area. Services were led by lay members of the congregation, including Saul Klein, who mentored him. A year before his bar mitzvah, however, Riter moved with his family to El Paso, where there was a comparatively large Jewish community. He received sufficient training to lead prayers in English and Hebrew, read from the Torah and deliver a sermon. "Services, of course, differ from synagogue to synagogue, but the one thing that remains the same is that after many years of preparation, the service is over in the blink of an eye," Riter said. "The key, I have realized, to a 'successful' service is to fully experience the moment and enjoy the honor of claiming one's role as a bar/bat mitzvah in the Jewish community."

Rabbi Ted Riter at his  bar mitzvah

Rabbi David Barnett of Congregation B'nai Chaim, a Conservative congregation in Murietta, grew up in Seattle in the "classical Reform movement" when "it was not the custom in the congregation to wear any kipot, to wear a tallit or to chant the blessings before the Haftorah, or to actually chant either the Torah or the Haftorah. Times have changed, even in that congregation! I was the first student to chant the blessing for the Haftorah, and then that was a big deal!"

Barnett said that "the overall feeling of being surrounded with warmth, love and appreciation is the primary memory I have of the occasion of my bar mitzvah then, one which later served as a positive and significant milestone in the conglomeration of life events which would later propel me toward the rabbinate."

Some rabbis remember their bar/bat mitzvahs as a time when their own religious inclinations proved to be at variance with those of their parents.

Rabbi Lisa Goldstein, a Reform rabbi who serves as director of Hillel of San Diego said her parents thought of Judaism as a home-based religion and didn't care whether their children became b'nai mitzvah, "but I did care."

In that sense, she said, she feels similar to people she teaches for adult b'nai mitzvah. "The individuals called to the Torah have made a choice, although those of the adult b'nai mitzvah are more mature and thoughtful," she said.

Goldstein described her bat mitzvah as a "truly spiritually significant experience" and said she remembers that during a practice session, "when the rabbi took the Torah out of the Ark I was overwhelmed to think that I was going to be connected. ... I didn¹t feel worthy."

She said that her grandparents had left Germany in 1937 and that "at the time of my bat mitzvah my grandmother sent me a note telling me that the presence of all of the family that did not get out of nazi Germany would be with me as I read the Torah blessings."

Rabbi Jeff Lipschultz of Temple Beth Sholom, a Conservative congregation, remembers that at the time of his bar mitzvah his parents had been divorced.

"Mom was a ¹70s hippie, Dad an M.D. and his new wife wasn't Jewish. This created quite a bit of tension as Dad wanted her to be part of the event."

Instead of a typical bar mitzvah, "I had a hippie/alternative bar mitzvah," an "interactive service with non-Jewish anti-war poems" and "we sang John Lennon's 'Imagine.' The rabbi didn¹t like the line '..and no religion too,' so we had to cut that."

Now that he¹s a rabbi, "I certainly wouldn¹t allow a bar/bat mitzvah like that," Lipschultz said.

Rabbi Arthur Zuckerman of Congregation Beth Am, a Conservative congregation, had an Orthodox bar mitzvah. As he looks back upon it, he wonders if it would have been better for the bar mitzvah age to be 18. "I don¹t think 12-and 13-year-olds are mature enough for the responsibility of bar mitzvah," he said.

He remembered that his parents rented the Atlantic Beach Hotel in New York and brought family and friends there for an entire weekend. "My friends and I had never slept in a hotel before and we had a wonderful time. At 2 a.m., we had a water fight which brought my Aunt Gittle upstairs to our room. ... We made a mess of the hotel."

Rabbi Mel Weinman of Temple Etz Rimon, a Reform congregation, said when he became a bar mitzvah in 1933, "I had a terrible portion to read. I wouldn't wish it on anyone; it had to do with leprosy."

His bar mitzvah came during the midst of the Depression, a stark time. Yet, despite the poverty and despite the gloom of his Torah portion, he nevertheless remembers his bar mitzvah as an occasion worth repeating.

According to the belief that 70 years represents a normal lifespan, anything after that is considered in folk tradition to be a second life. Turning 83 this year, Weinman commented that he is "ready to do my second" bar mitzvah.

That may be one of the greatest testaments of all to the bar/bat mitzvah¹s enduring impact.