Celebrating Your New Jewish Daughter: Creating Jewish Ways to Welcome Baby Girls Into the Covenant-New and Traditional Ceremonies [Paperback]

Debra Nussbaum Cohen (Author), Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2001

An indispensable “how-to” guide for creating lasting memories and special ceremonies as you welcome your new Jewish daughter.

When a son is born, every Jewish parent knows what ceremony will welcome him into the community and signal his part in the Jewish people-the brit milah.

What to do when a girl is born? How can you welcome your new daughter in a truly Jewish way, and celebrate your joy with family and friends? In the past, parents who wanted a simchat bat (celebration of a daughter) ceremony for their new daughter often had to start from scratch. Finally, this first-of-its-kind book gives families everything they need to plan the celebration.

History & Tradition: The roots of simchat bat in Jewish tradition, how it has evolved, and how the past can be used to bring today’s dynamic ceremonies to life.

A How-to Guide: New and traditional ceremonies, complete with prayers, rituals, handouts to copy, and step-by-step instructions for creating your own unique ceremony.

Planning the Details: What to call your daughter’s welcoming ceremony, when and where to have it, setting it up, how long it should be, how to handle the unexpected, how to prepare a program guide, and more.

Ideas & Information: Practical guidelines for planning the event, and special suggestions and resources for families of all constellations.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While the brit milah (circumcision) ceremony welcomes baby boys into the Jewish community, no similar standard celebration exists for baby girls. Cohen, a journalist, introduces and collects welcoming ceremonies that have been invented over the past 30 years, unearthed from Jewish communities around the world and adapted from other rituals. The challenge of the simchat bat (celebration of a daughter), she says, is that its innovative nature "extends to each of us the opportunity to compose the ceremony that feels best suited to our family's needs." To guide parents, grandparents, rabbis and cantors, Cohen has compiled an array of prayers, readings, blessings, songs and rituals that concretize the child's entry into the community. Hebrew texts are accompanied by translations and transliterations. Complete sample ceremonies include Sephardic, Orthodox, humanist and a "modern mikvah ceremony" in which the child is immersed in a vessel representing the traditional ritual bath. The ceremonies that work best, Cohen notes, are rooted in modern poems and songs as well as classical elements of Jewish liturgy. This resource will guide families at one of the most joyous moments of their lives.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"...a must for every rabbi's study, synagogue gift shop, or day school library." -- Letty Cottin Pogrebin, author of Debra, Golda and Me: Being Female and Jewish in America

"A rich selection of readings and blessings is complemented by an intriguing tradition of naming ceremonies in the Jewish tradition." -- Cantor Erica Jan Lippitz, Oheb Shalom Congregation, South Orange, New Jersey

"A treasure-chest of ceremonies, songs, and readings. What a terrific resource for parents, grandparents, rabbis and cantors." -- Anita Diamant, author of the Red Tent, The New Jewish Baby Book and How to Be a Jewish Parent

"It reaches into the depths of our souls as we connect a new member of the family to the covenant." -- Blu Greenberg, author of On Women and Judaism: A View From Tradition

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Jewish Lights Publishing (March 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580230903
• ISBN-13: 978-1580230902
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #619,040 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an organic classic in the making, a must for your shelf, April 26, 2001

By 

Larry Mark "editor of MyJewishBooks.com" (nyc) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Celebrating Your New Jewish Daughter: Creating Jewish Ways to Welcome Baby Girls Into the Covenant-New and Traditional Ceremonies (Paperback)

The introduction opens with, "Mazal Tov, You've Had a Baby Girl!" Everybody is familiar with a bris, or brit milah circumcision ceremony -- and in current practice, a festive celebration, for healthy baby boys on their eighth day after birth. But what do you do when you have a daughter? What are they, chopped liver? Since the early 1970's, some Jewish parents have been celebrating their daughters in original ways (Ezrat Nashim published the first ceremonies in 1977, and the havurah and renewal movements wrote about theirs starting around 1973). Debra Nussbaum Cohen, a resident of Park Slope Brooklyn, and mother who has known the joy of birth and the pain of loss, has created this essential guide to new and traditional ceremonies with which to welcome your new daughter to the world, the covenant, and the Jewish people. It will be a welcome addition to your Jewish bookshelf and your life. Consider this: what you create today will be a "tradition" for your descendants! Cohen started collecting organic Simchat Bat ceremonies when she was pregnant with her first child. For your Simchat Bat ceremony and celebration, she includes readings, poems, specialized readings for adoptions, blessings, prayers (in Hebrew, English transliterations and translations), history, songs, and rituals. It is an inclusive book that has sample ceremonies also crafted for adherents to traditional Orthodoxy, traditional Sephardic rite, contemporary rites, contemporary Orthodox, humanism, and modren mikveh rites. Part One consists of about two dozen pages that introduce you to welcoming ceremonies and Jewish tradition, including the idea of covenant, brit milah, the custom of gomel, and that of a new father being called to the Torah to recite blessings, announce the birth, and pray for his wife's recovery. Part Two consists of about four dozen pages on seriously practical considerations for your ceremony. It includes chapters on how to involve your non-Jewish loved ones or spouse, if necessary (through acknowledgement and readings); what to do in cases of adoption and cross-cultural adoption (remember, Moses was an adopted child, and Mordechai was probably an adoptive parent); and gay and lesbian parenthood. Part Three focuses on planning the event, creating programs, sanctifying the space, and deciding when to have the Simchat Bat (eighth day, 30th day, etc.). Part Four contains over 150 pages of sample ceremonies, and hundreds of readings and elements from which you can pick and choose. It includes selections for welcoming, naming, prayers of thanksgiving, parental blessings, acrostics, psalms, readings for relatives and friends, blessings for wine and bread, and rituals for brit nerot (light), brit mikvah (immersion), brit rechitzah (footwashing/handwashing), brit tallit (enfolding her into the covenant), brit kehillah (community), brit melach, and brit havdalah (transitions). The book succeeds so well, one wishes all the babies were girls (or maybe some things can be borrowed for future boys).

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Joyous Guide to Evolving Tradition -- Naming Our Daughters, April 12, 2001

By 

bklyn reader (Brooklyn, Ny USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Celebrating Your New Jewish Daughter: Creating Jewish Ways to Welcome Baby Girls Into the Covenant-New and Traditional Ceremonies (Paperback)

Finally, a book for aware Jewish families looking for a formal ceremony to welcome their daughtersinto the Jewish people. For centuries, baby boys were celebrated in Brit Milah, while girls were named quietly, in shul. Today, many families seek to honor their new daughters and our shared tradition in a baby-naming ceremony. Nussbaum Cohen's substantial contribution to the process is the wide range of resources she presents, as the reader is guided by her elegant prose through the full breadth of options. Sample ceremonies allow families to pick and choose the one that best suits their needs -- or craft their own, from the excellent 'building blocks' Nussbaum Cohen provides. Well-researched and well-written, a perfect new baby gift or addition to a family library.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book, February 24, 2006

By 

M. B. Gruen - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Celebrating Your New Jewish Daughter: Creating Jewish Ways to Welcome Baby Girls Into the Covenant-New and Traditional Ceremonies (Paperback)

This book was great for helping us plan our Bat Simcha. We purchased it even before our baby was born - before we knew the baby would be a girl. It provided many great ideas for creating either a Bat Simcha or a more personalized bris. We could not have planned such a meaningful ceremony without the help of this book.