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You are here: Home / Archive / Christians borrow bar mitzvahs as new rite-of-passage

Christians borrow bar mitzvahs as new rite-of-passage

March 1, 2013 by Richard Cimino

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Evangelicals are holding Christian versions of bar mitzvahs as part of a larger trend of increasing identification with Jews and Israel.

The New York Times Magazine (March 24) reports that the concept of the Christian bar mitzvah is carried out regardless of ethnicity and is seen as a Christ-centered coming of age ceremony. The boys are prepared for the ceremony by learning Hebrew and the scriptures, often under the guidance of a Messianic Jewish leader. The rabbis interviewed are divided on the practice, with some taking a tolerant attitude toward such borrowing, especially as it is accompanied by support for Israel, and others viewing it as poaching on the Jewish religion.

The article notes that for the past two decades, evangelicals have borrowed traditions and trappings of Judaism—from holding seders to being married under chuppahs and wearing prayer shawls over their clothes.

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Filed Under: Archive

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  • Virtual classrooms gain ground among American seminaries, with evangelicals leading the way
  • A pope of the new evangelization
  • On/File: March/April 2013
  • Findings & Footnotes: March/April 2013
  • ‘Off the books’ secularization in Israel?
  • Poland: still a high level of religious practice, but shows a more affirmative secular camp
  • Religion and values still related in Europe
  • Secularization and culture wars gain currency in Latin America
  • Current Research: March/April 2013
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  • Orthodox outreach creating new bridge between American Judaism’s conflicting camps?
  • Evangelicals recycle mainline churches while keeping their ‘authenticity’
  • Cable television cashing in on religion and its controversies

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