Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/708282
22 July 28 • 2016 S crolling through my Facebook feed a few weeks ago, I noticed that the young woman whose bat mitzvah I officiated just weeks after being ordained as a rabbi a dozen years ago had walked down the aisle as a bride. That, combined with the realization my oldest child will become a bar mitzvah early next year, caused me to feel nostalgic and also to consider how the bar and bat mitzvah train- ing process has changed over the years. While the bar mitzvah ceremony is a relatively new institution in Judaism, it hasn't changed much in terms of what the bar mitzvah or bat mitzvah actually does in the synagogue ser- vice. Of course, the ceremony differs from synagogue to synagogue, and what a girl is allowed to do for her bat mitzvah ceremony varies in Orthodox congregations and in some Conservative congregations. What has certainly changed in recent years is how these Jewish teens are trained for their coming-of-age ceremony and how the synagogues handle the process. During my final year of rabbinical school, I was serving a fledgling synagogue com- munity in northern Virginia while attending classes in New York City and living in New Jersey. The few b'nai mitzvah students I had to train that year met with me mostly over a speaker phone. When I had the opportunity to meet these teens in person during one of my weekend visits to the congregation, I realized how much of the important interac- tion I was missing because I couldn't see their faces during our tutoring sessions. The technology to tutor them virtually through video conferencing was not yet available. NEW TECH OPTIONS Today, many b'nai mitzvah tutors are train- ing Jewish teens who live hundreds or even thousands of miles away thanks to the advent of such video conferencing apps as Skype, Google Hangouts, Zoom and Apple FaceTime. Even beyond these communica- tion apps, other technological tools allow for a more interactive bar mitzvah training experience. Many online tutors use the Trope Trainer application, a computer software that has lessons, blessings and full readings for stu- dents. In many cases, it is the family unaf- filiated with a congregation who is looking to use technology for training, and there are no shortage of options. However, with busy extracur- ricular schedules for the teens and hectic work responsibilities for parents, it is often easier for teens to be trained at home in front of a screen. All of these new options mean congregations need to keep track of where and how their teens are being trained. They also have to manage the entire process of train- ing and meeting the benchmarks in place for the b'nai mitzvah program. One rabbi in Canada is bringing the bar mitzvah management process into the Digital Age. Vancouver Rabbi Dan Moskovitz has created a groundbreaking b'nai mitzvah manage- ment platform to make the process much easier for congregations using distance tutoring in a more personable way. He is the rabbi of a large congregation; but as a hobby, he develops software programs to help manage synagogue operations and educa- tion programs. He recently released Mitzvah Tools 2.0. MITZVAH TOOLS Many congregations across North America already hold subscriptions to the original version of Mitzvah Tools, which is the first cloud-based management system for b'nai mitzvah. Over the years, congregations of all sizes have relied on this desktop app to maintain recordings of Torah readings, schedule appointments with students, track tutoring notes, participation honors and handle assignments. Thirteen years later, Moskovitz has teamed up with a cantor to augment the original software. The new version of Mitzvah Tools is completely cloud-based and mobile friendly. It promises to transform the bar and bat mitzvah educational process for congrega- tions, making critical information and valuable resources easily accessible to tutors, clergy, students and parents. Rabbis, can- tors and bar mitzvah tutors can use the Mitzvah Tools app to make multimedia-rich assignments and tasks for students, main- tain service notes, schedule appointments, initiate video chats for remote learning and maintain their congregation's own limitless online resource bank of audio, video and text files accessible to each student at any time. "The expectations placed upon the b'nai mitzvah in the training process have not changed much in several generations, but the students, educators and parents have changed dramatically," Moskovitz explains. "Students now have more demands on their time. Mitzvah Tools allows students to study wherever and whenever they can with all of their materials right on their phones, including initiating a Skype/FaceTime ses- sion with a tutor with just a click of a but- ton." For parents who are managing multiple calendars and projects, Mitzvah Tools helps them organize. The app syncs appoint- ment calendars, online scheduling, instant threaded messaging with the education team and an online resource bank that has every kernel of information about the b'nai mitzvah process. Moskovitz points out that with today's prevalence of intermarriage in the Jewish community, many parents of Jewish teens did not experience the bar or bat mitzvah training process in their youth so an appli- cation like Mitzvah Tools is helpful in that regard as well. For educators, Mitzvah Tools provides one place for notes, files, assignments, cal- endar, honors during the service and impor- tant contact information. In a previous gen- eration, many tutors kept a binder, which was never seen by rabbis or cantors. Now, however, everyone can be on the same page. In multi-clergy/multi-tutor environments, this is an extremely helpful program. "Until Mitzvah Tools came along, in order to keep track of the more than 100 students under my supervision or tutoring, I had to carry around a four-inch ring binder, in which each child had their own pages," said Cantor Mark Britowich of Temple Judea in California. "With Mitzvah Tools, I manage these students easily. Everything I need to know is visible on whatever device I use, and I maintain each child's file so that everyone on our staff can see exactly what the student is working on." Mitzvah Tools is the perfect solution for distance learning. With an online project management system, remote video chat and threaded discussions between students and educator, the tutoring room in now in the cloud. In small, rural communities in which it is challenging to find bar mitzvah tutors, an online tutor can be engaged and, through Mitzvah Tools, the rabbi or other congrega- tional designate can monitor the student's progress from the online dashboard and join in the process every step of the way. "Mitzvah Tools has been such a huge help for our son and his bar mitzvah studies," said Sharon Goldberg of Florida. "Having all of his recordings online and being able to schedule or reschedule his tutoring sessions from my phone makes it so much easier to stay on top of this whole process." Young Jewish teens will continue to cele- brate their b'nai mitzvah ceremonies as their grandparents did before them, but the prep- aration process has changed, thanks to new technology. Online training websites and virtual tutors will become the norm for how many teens prepare for their milestone event in the Jewish lifecycle. New applications like Mitzvah Tools will help ensure the process is organized and managed appropriately. * Rabbi Jason Miller is an educator, entrepreneur and blogger. He is president of Access Computer Technology in West Bloomfield. Follow him on Twitter at @RabbiJason. metro » j e w s i n t h e d i g i t a l a g e Rabbi Dan Moskovitz Tech Tools For The Bar & Bat Mitzvah Rabbi Jason Miller Mitzvah Tools