Pictured here are members of the adult bar/bat mitzvah program and their rabbis and teachers: (front, l to r): Joan Shapiro, Patti Weiner, Betty Hoffman; Middle row (L to R) are: Rabbi Ilana Garber, Ingrid Gindin, Constance Mindell, Lisa Berzins, Amy Jaffe-Barzach; (back, l to r) Rabbi James Rosen, Rabbi Howard Rosenbaum, Daniel Rapoport, Susan Rabinowe.

Nine adults marked the culmination of an 18-month personal and spiritual journey with a joint bat/bar mitzvah ceremony on Saturday, May 7 at Beth El Temple in West Hartford. The eight women and one man completed Beth El’s adult bar/bat mitzvah that involved studying and discussing Jewish texts, laws, holidays and customs, learning Hebrew, trope, synagogue rituals and prayers. The group also completed a mitzvah project to stock the kosher food pantry at Jewish Family Services of Greater Hartford and sponsored a rug for the new Children’s Corner of the Beth El Temple Synagogue Library.