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Planning a Meaningful Bar/Bat Mitzvah Trip

September 20, 2025

Travel Insights

A Bar or Bat Mitzvah marks a profound moment in a young person’s life, the step into Jewish responsibility and belonging. Families often choose to mark this milestone with a journey that roots the celebration in memory, tradition, and community. A trip to Israel or Poland, or to both, can transform the Bar or Bat Mitzvah from a single event into an experience that shapes a young person’s identity for years to come.

In Israel, the possibilities are endless. Some families choose to celebrate at the Kotel in Jerusalem, where countless generations have prayed. Others find meaning in holding the ceremony in the ancient synagogue in the Galilee, on the shores of the Kinneret, or on Masada. Each location brings a different layer of symbolism: continuity, connection to the land, or courage and resilience. Beyond the ceremony itself, the trip can include moments that deepen the experience, such as planting a tree in Israel, joining a volunteer project, or participating in a Twinning Ceremony at Yad Vashem. This moving program pairs the Bar or Bat Mitzvah child with the memory of a child who perished in the Holocaust, giving them a sense of responsibility to carry that name and story forward into Jewish life today.

Ceremonies can be tailored to the family’s tradition. Whether Conservative, Reform, or personal in style, we provide the support needed to make the event meaningful. A rabbi, photographer, and videographer can be arranged, or families may choose to bring their own rabbi or officiant. This flexibility ensures that every family celebrates in a way that feels authentic to them.

Poland offers another layer of meaning. For families with roots there, celebrating a Bar or Bat Mitzvah as part of a heritage journey allows the young person to step into their Jewish adulthood while honoring those who came before. Standing in a synagogue that has been restored, visiting a cemetery where ancestors are buried, or simply walking through a town where family once lived brings history into the present. For many, this is a way of ensuring that memory is not only preserved but carried forward with pride.

A Bar or Bat Mitzvah trip is also a celebration, and families often choose to add touches that make the day festive. A luncheon after the ceremony, a special cake, balloons, and other details help create a joyful atmosphere. These elements blend seamlessly with the meaning of the milestone, reminding everyone that Jewish life is about memory, joy, and togetherness.

Beyond the ceremony, the journey itself becomes an adventure. Jeep rides in the desert, camel rides, a meal with a Druze or Bedouin family, or even meeting with Israeli soldiers give young people the chance to connect with the land and its people in unforgettable ways. These encounters bring fun, depth, and perspective to the trip, ensuring it is remembered as both meaningful and exciting.

For some, the journey may also include a belated Bar or Bat Mitzvah. Adults who never had the chance to celebrate at thirteen often choose to step into this moment later in life, finding deep fulfillment in affirming their place in the Jewish story.

Rather than a single event, a Bar or Bat Mitzvah trip becomes a tapestry of identity, memory, and celebration. It strengthens family bonds, honors the past, and gives the next generation a living connection to their heritage.

If you are beginning to think about this journey for your family, we invite you to request our Bar/Bat Mitzvah Questionnaire so we can begin planning an experience that will be uniquely yours.

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Traveler Questionnaire

Shlomo Katz

Art of Light, Tradition, and Renewal

Shlomo Katz (1937–1992) was an extraordinary Jewish-Israeli artist whose legacy bridges Jewish tradition with striking innovation. Born in Łódź, Poland, and immigrating to Israel in 1945, Katz’s life and art reflect the story of the Jewish people—rooted in memory, faith, and renewal.

Educated on Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek, Katz revealed his talent early and later studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he developed a unique artistic style influenced by medieval icons and oriental miniatures. His work combined ancient motifs with modern sensibility, establishing him as one of the most respected Jewish artists of his time.

Katz became known for his groundbreaking technique of painting with oil on gilded metallic surfaces, producing works that shimmer with light and spiritual depth. This mastery reached its height in his monumental series for the United States Air Force Academy Chapel in Colorado Springs, where nine radiant paintings stand as a testament to his vision. He later refined this approach into advanced screen printing with metallic inks, creating celebrated works such as The Ten Plagues and the Passover Portfolio.

His art was exhibited worldwide and entered major collections, including the Wolfson Museum of Judaism in Jerusalem, the National Gallery of Australia, the Museum of Jewish Art in Paris, and the Jewish Museum of Australia in Melbourne.

Shlomo Katz’s creations embody art as a bridge between past and future, tradition and modernity. They remind us of the enduring beauty of Jewish culture and the human spirit. His legacy lives on in works that continue to inspire, connect, and illuminate.

Oded Feingersh

Painter of Color, Land, and Spirit

Oded Feingersh, born in 1938, is one of Israel’s most distinguished contemporary painters, carrying forward the legacy of his grandfather, Meir Rosin, the first sign painter and landscape artist in the Land of Israel. Growing up in Jerusalem’s Geula neighborhood, he developed a strong connection to the Hebrew language, the land, and above all, to art.

A graduate of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in 1963, Feingersh studied under leading Israeli artists such as Mordecai Ardon, Isidor Ascheim, and Jacob Pins. His style blends realism with the influence of pop art, while his love of Israel’s landscapes, nurtured during his studies at the Avshalom Institute, shines through in his work.

In the 1960s, Feingersh traveled to France, where he joined the Belgian anarchist art group Mass Mobbing and later became the first Israeli artist awarded the LEFRANC Prize for Young Artists. Returning to Israel, he quickly gained recognition, with solo exhibitions at the Tel Aviv Museum and the Herzliya Museum, and in 1976 received the prestigious Dizengoff Art Prize.

Over his long career, Feingersh has exhibited extensively in Israel and abroad, illustrated books, and authored 13 volumes of poetry. In 2005, he marked 40 years of artistic creation with a major retrospective at the Givatayim Theater. Today, he is regarded as one of Israel’s most senior and influential living painters, whose work continues to bridge tradition and modernity, imagination and landscape.

Pinchas Shaar

Artist of Imagination and Memory

Pinchas Shaar, born in Poland as Pinchas Schwartz, was an extraordinary figure whose life and art reflect resilience, creativity, and a deep connection to Jewish culture. Growing up in a home that valued art and freedom of thought, he began painting and writing as a teenager, inspired by his artistic roots in the family of Yankel Adler.
The outbreak of World War II profoundly shaped his life.

After serving in the Polish army and being captured by the Germans, Shaar returned to the Łódź Ghetto, where he worked as an artist in the Office of Statistics until its liquidation in 1944. Surviving Sachsenhausen concentration camp, he was liberated in 1945 and soon began rebuilding his life through art, first in Germany and later in Paris.
His career spanned continents and decades, from designing sets for Israel’s Chamber Theater to presenting at major institutions such as the Jewish Museum in New York, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and the Linbach Museum in Munich.

In Jaffa, he established a permanent studio that became a hub of creativity and expression.

Shaar’s works are instantly recognizable: brightly colored, filled with whimsical figures, fantastical animals, and perspectives that feel like magical carpets. They balance innocence with depth, humor with pain, playfulness with reflection. Beyond paintings, he also created tapestries, mosaics, and reliefs, always weaving together fantasy and reality.
“I come to the audience with my world,” Shaar once said, “It did not exist until I took it out of the intestines.” His art embodies that vision—a deeply personal world offered to others, where imagination, heritage, and memory meet. To encounter Pinchas Shaar’s work is to step into a universe of color and emotion, an experience that stays with the viewer long after.

David Sharir – Artist of Stage, Wall, and Soul

A visionary of color, imagination, and heritage

David Sharir, born in 1938, is one of Israel’s most prominent multidisciplinary artists, whose work spans painting, stage and costume design, mosaics, and visual interpretations of literature and biblical texts. From his early recognition as a prize-winning young painter, Sharir went on to design for Israel’s leading theaters, including Habima, Cameri, and Batsheva Dance Company, creating productions still remembered for their creativity and color.

His artistic vision extends beyond the stage to monumental public works, such as the mosaic “Tower of Babel” at Tel Aviv University and “Tel Aviv–Jaffa Second Generation” at the Shalom Tower. These large-scale creations reflect his signature blend of humor, imagination, and storytelling rooted in Jewish culture.

Sharir’s art often explores the dialogue between literature, biblical texts, and visual form, with series inspired by the Book of Psalms and the writings of S.Y. Agnon. Since 2003, he has also served as curator of the Shalom Tower Gallery in Tel Aviv, continuing to shape and enrich the Israeli art scene.

Today, David Sharir is celebrated not only as an artist but as a storyteller whose works transcend canvas and stage, inviting viewers on a journey through heritage, creativity, and the soul.

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