New Details of Elena Kagan's Bat Mitzvah Are Revealed

The New York Times published details yesterday of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's campaign as a 12-year girl old for more women's equality in Jewish religious life. Kagan's family belonged to the Orthodox, but progressive, Lincoln Square Synagogue, headed at that time by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin. A star Hebrew school pupil, Kagan convinced Rabbi Riskin to allow her to have the first formal Bat Mitzvah at a synagogue that previously only celebrated the Bar Mitzvah-- for boys. Kagan wanted a service identical to the Bar Mitzvah, at which she would read from the Torah on Saturday morning. However she had to negotiate for something less. Her ceremony was on Friday night, where she read from the Book of Ruth and gave a talk analyzing it. Rabbi Riskin, who now lives in Israel, says: "We crafted a lovely service, but I don't think I satisfied her completely. But she certainly raised my consciousness."