The Bat Mitzvah ceremony is now widely accepted in American Judaism. Some take place, however, in locations of particular religious significance. Twelve-year-old Yael Schneider is pictured above reading from the Torah at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. On her left is the prayer leader, Betsy Cohen-Kallus, and on her right is her mother, Susan Weidman Schneider, editor of the Jewish feminist publication Lilith.

Institution: Edith Robbins.