Celebrating Your New Jewish Daughter: Creating Jewish Ways to Welcome Baby Girls into the Covenant

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.

Debra Nussbaum Cohen is a mother and an award-winning journalist whose interest and specialty is writing on issues related to Jewish identity and spirituality. She currently writes for the New York Jewish Week. She has been the religion writer for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and has written for many publications including the Washington Post, New York magazine, the Village Voice, Moment, the Jerusalem Report, the Jerusalem Post, Sh'ma and Jewish Family & Life. Cohen lives in New York with her husband and three children.

Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, a parent, spiritual leader and storyteller, is the award-winning author of God's Paintbrush, In God's Name, God In Between and many other inspiring books for children of all faiths and backgrounds. The second woman to be ordained as a rabbi (1974) and the first rabbi to become a mother, she and her husband, Dennis, were the first rabbinical couple to jointly lead a congregation―Beth-El Zedeck in Indianapolis. They have two children, David and Debora, and three grandchildren. Sasso, who holds a doctorate in ministry, is active in the interfaith community, and has written and lectured on the renewal of spirituality and the discovery of the religious imagination in children of all faiths.

Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso is available to speak on the following topics:

• Nurturing the Spiritual Imagination of Children
• Tell Me a Story: Reading the Bible and the Religious Imagination of Children
• Filling in the Blanks: How Women Read the Bible
• Women and Judaism: A Personal Journey
• Midrash as a Tool for Spiritual Reflection

Click here to contact the author.