Questions to Ask Before Your Bat Mitzvah by Morgan Bassichis, Jay Saper, Rachel Valinsky (Editors)

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Illustrator: Nicole Eisenman

Foreword: Angela Y. Davis

Edited by comedic performance artist and activist Morgan Bassichis with artist and educator Jay Saper and writer Rachel Valinsky, Questions to Ask Before Your Bat Mitzvah invites 36 writers, artists, scholars and activists to offer accessible reflections on 36 questions to help young Jews–and anyone else who picks up this book–feel grounded in the Jewish radical tradition, unlearn Zionism and deepen their solidarity with Palestinians. With a foreword by seminal scholar-activist Angela Y. Davis and illustrations by artist Nicole Eisenman, this essential volume offers an accessible and challenging set of personal and collective responses to critical questions for our time. Questions included range from “What even is a Bat Mitzvah?” and “I’m queer/nonbinary/secular/old/not even Jewish–are Bat Mitzvahs for me?” to “What do Palestinian kids do when they turn thirteen?”

Contributors include: Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Imani Altemus-Williams, Sumaya Awad, Shirly Bahar, Kholoud Balata, Morgan Bassichis, Bazeed, Gregg Bordowitz, Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, Ilise Benshushan Cohen, Jonah Aline Daniel, Maya Edery, Esther Farmer, Dan Fishback, Aitan Groener, Rabbi Miriam Grossman, Noah Habeeb, Olivia Katbi, Aurora Levins Morales, Brooke Lober, Tariq Luthun, Collier Meyerson, Dori Midnight, Izzy Mustafa, Aidan Orly and Jonathan Brenneman, Una Aya Osato, Khury Petersen-Smith, Rabbi Brant Rosen, Dylan Saba, Mahdi Sabbagh, Jay Saper, Ita Segev, Dean Spade, Elena Stein, Sandra Tamari, Kendra Watkins and Satya Zamudio.

Year first published: 2023