Faithful at any age

Saturday, May 6, 2000 | 8:53 a.m.

When Gertrude Emmer Dubowe stood at the bema (altar), wearing her late husband's yarmulke (skullcap), she was overwrought with joy.

On that January morning her family and friends were present. She read from the haftorah (a portion of the Torah). She gave a brief speech. The rabbi called her family to the bema and wrapped the tallit (a ceremonial shawl) around her.

This was her bat mitzvah, her passage into adulthood in the Jewish community -- and she was 75 years old.

"I cannot tell you what I felt," Dubowe said recalling the ceremony. "It was so warm. It was such a beautiful, beautiful feeling."

Like many Jewish women her age, Dubowe wasn't given the chance to participate in the formal ceremony in her adolescence -- at age 13 -- when the ceremony usually occurs. The rite of passage was unheard of for young women then.

Bar mitzvah, the ceremony for boys, is as old as the Jewish faith.

That changed nearly 50 years ago for Reformed and Conservative Jews, and now the women who witnessed their daughters and granddaughters bat mitzvahed are stepping forward for their turn.

Under the guidance of Rabbi Hershel Brooks, 24 women participated in the Jan. 30 bat mitzvah at Sun City Community Center, where Bet Knesset Bamidbar holds synagogue twice a month.

On June 10 or on Shavuot -- the holiday that celebrates the giving of the 10 Commandments -- Brooks will lead another group of seniors, 20 women and four men, in bat and bar mitzvahs.

"I didn't expect so many people wanting it," Brooks said. In fact, when the idea developed after a congregation member said he had never been bar mitzvahed, Brooks said he expected interest from only four or five people.

More than 50 came forward. He broke the group in two and set up a 12-week course for each, meeting Tuesdays in different households.

On folding chairs and floral sofas, the second group collectively recited blessings Tuesday from the Torah in Rita Stromberg's living room.

"Part of me is excited and thinks it's neat," Stromberg said. "Part of me asks 'Should I really be doing this?' "

As a child Stromberg attended Hebrew school and learned to read that language, but was never bat mitzvahed.

"This is a summation of everything I've lived with and believed in," Stromberg said. "The chance to do it doesn't come along that often."

She already received her first bat mitzvah gift, a silver yad (personal pointer to point to the Torah), given by her daughter.

For some the support varies among familial generations.

Ruth Weinrott, who is taking the classes for the first time, said her children are supportive, but her mother "would have been aghast."

"It was definitely for boys," Weinrott said.

At the ceremony celebrants will read prayers, recite blessings and explain biblical readings. Weinrott will read from the Book of Ruth.

"I'm proud that we're becoming a part of the Jewish tradition," Weinrott said. "The modern days have brought the tradition up to date where the women can participate."

While children spend four or five years in Hebrew school preparing for their bar and bat mitzvah, the seniors will only learn simple Hebrew prayers and hear insightful lectures on Judaism and the Torah during their 12-week course.

It may be common for synagogues to hold adult bar and bat mitzvahs, a practice that has transpired in the past 15 years, but usually only a handful of people participate, Brooks said.

He had never conducted adult ceremonies on this scale, Brooks said. The first ceremony, which lasted three hours, drew 700 people.

"Children see their parents saying the very same blessing they learned when they were 13," Brooks said. "They're just so emotionally high, spiritually inspired and Jewishly motivated."

Outside the synagogue, Dubowe, who was raised Conservative and later became Reformed, had no religious training. She knew the prayers, but only by rote.

The religious knowledge has reinforced her feeling of responsibility.

"Rabbi Brooks opened a whole new world to us," she said. "He taught us things about our religion that we didn't know. We had the most wonderful time.

"I didn't know how to thank him enough for what he had done for me."

When Dubowe's mother was bat mitzvahed in 1981 at the age of 83, more than 100 people came to support her. When it was Dubowe's turn, her friends and family flew in from all over the country.

"It's a very old ceremony, but a very meaningful one," she said. "I had friends who came from my elementary school."

Many men will often have another bar mitzvah at age 83 because the average Biblical life span is 70, and 83 is looked at as a rebirth. But for the four men currently studying in Brooks' class, this is their first. Two are taking the courses with their wives.

"For some reason, they never had it when they were younger," Brooks said. "So they're having it now."

For 82-year-old Paul Greenfield, who never completed Hebrew school, these courses have brought him back to temple.

"It means everything in the world," Greenfield said. "It was time for me to become what I am."

Kristen Peterson covers community affairs for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-2317 or by e-mail at kristen@lasvegassun.com.