Moving Traditions

They meet and discuss adolescent girls' self-esteem, leadership, competition, body image, Jewish identity and friendships.

The program grew out of three years of research conducted by the organization and published in the article Engaging Jewish Teen Boys: A Call to Action.

Each meeting starts with a cooperative and non competitive game, or with food preparation, the goal of which is to break the ground for deeper conversation.

Rabbi Daniel Brenner, director for initiatives for boys and men for Moving Traditions, believes that the program fills a void in the typical adolescent male life.

Each meeting focuses on allowing the boys to decompress from stressful lives and balance clowning and horseplay with deep discussions of Judaism and ethics.

[12] The organizations and The National Museum of American Jewish History have collaborated to organize a traveling exhibition, Bat Mitzvah Comes of Age, featuring the story of how, in less than a century, individual girls, their parents and their rabbis challenged communal values to institute this now widely practiced Jewish ritual of the Bat Mitzvah.

"A couple years ago we wanted to show the evolution of the bat mitzvah" says Deborah Meyer, executive director and cofounder at Moving Traditions.

The exhibit mentions both everyday people as well as noted women, including Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan and activist Ruth Messinger.