Bar Mitzvah Programme

St Kilda Shule provides a warm and inclusive environment and an engaging Rabbinical team in one of Australia’s most stunning Shule interiors to enhance your simchah. Whatever the occasion – baby naming, brit milah, Bar/Bat Mitzvah, aufruff or wedding, we aim to please. Check out our Bar Mitzvah policies and customs on our Policies page.
The Bar Mitzvah programme is an integral part of the St Kilda Shule experience and enriches the transition of our community’s young men through their journey into Jewish adulthood.
Social justice aspects include Tzedakah, cooking with CCare and the Holocaust-focussed Remember Me programme.
Our Bar Mitzvah programme is presented by Rabbis Yaakov Glasman AM and Hillel Nagel. Given the number of Bar Mitzvah boys in the programme, we have a February and July intake each running for a year. Our program is designed to be educational, interactive, practical, and above all – fun. While we cover all aspects of the Jewish calendar, Jewish life cycle and Jewish tradition – it not the curriculum covered in Jewish day schools. The program will imbue the boys with life lessons about Jewish identity and leadership and also enable them to form lifelong friendship with other boy and girls from the St Kilda Shule community. It also includes a photography competition.
The weekly interactive program (with activities, presentation and excursions) runs 3 weeks a month on a Sunday and the final week of each month on a Shabbat morning allowing the boys to become comfortable with the conduct of Shabbat services.
We also run a Shammes roster programme where the boys are rostered to assist with the distribution of Shabbat/Yom Tov honours and learn leadership skills.
Finally, we run Sunday morning Tefillin breakfasts approximately every 4 to 6 weeks.

For an example, see the letter sent to families prior to the start of the Feburary 2018 intake, here.
To discuss enrolment, contact the Shule office on 9537 1433.
The Bar Mitzvah application form can be downloaded from here or you can complete the form online here.