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Subject Guide: Jewish Life Cycle

Highlights of archival and library materials found at the Center that relate to the Jewish life cycle, including its origins, practices, and traditions.

Marriage contract of Joseph Shopsin and Amie Jaffe (ketubah), 1908 (Yeshiva University Museum)

General Customs and History

Gates of mitzvah = Shaʻare mitsṿah : a guide to the Jewish life cycle / edited by Simeon J. Maslin; illustrated by Ismar David. New York : Central Conference of American Rabbis, 1979.

Living Jewish life cycle : how to create meaningful Jewish rites of passage at every stage of life / Goldie Milgram. Woodstock, VT : Jewish Lights Pub., 2009.

Sacred moments : tales from the Jewish life cycle / selected and edited by Ronald H. Isaacs and Kerry M. Olitzky. Northvale, N.J. : Jason Aronson, 1995.

The Jewish life cycle / by Joseph Gutmann. Leiden : E.J. Brill, 1987.

The Jewish life cycle : illustrated with selected ceremonial objects from the Beth Tzedec Museum and private collections / guest curator, Fred Weinberg. Toronto : Koffler Gallery, 1984.

The Jewish life cycle : rites of passage from biblical to modern times / Ivan G. Marcus. Seattle : University of Washington Press, 2004.

The tapestry of Jewish time : a spiritual guide to holidays and life-cycle events / by Nina Beth Cardin. Springfield, NJ : Behrman House, 2000.

Birth

A time to be born : Jewish birth customs and traditions / Michele Klein. Philadelphia, PA : Jewish Publication Society, 1998.

Baby's bris / Susan Wilkowski ; illustrated by Judith Friedman. Rockville, MD : Kar-Ben Copies, 1999.

Blessing the birth of a daughter : Jewish naming ceremonies for girls / edited by Toby Fishbein Reifman, with Ezrat Nashim. Englewood, NJ : Ezrat Nashim, 1976.

Bris Milah : circumcision--the Covenant of Abraham : a compendium of laws, rituals and customs from birth to bris, anthologized from Talmudic and traditional sources / Paysach J. Krohn. Brooklyn : Mesorah, 2005.

May God let him grow : a child's birth in the culture and customs of Bohemian and Moravian Jews / [edited by] Dana Veselská. Prague : Jewish Museum in Prague, 2009.

The practical guide to childbirth on Shabbos and yom tov / by S. Wagschal. Jerusalem ; Spring Valley, N.Y. : Feldheim, 1994.

Death

A candle for grandpa : a guide to the Jewish funeral for children and parents / David Techner and Judith Hirt-Manheimer ; illustrated by Joel Iskowitz. New York : UAHC Press, 1993.

Crossing the Jabbok : illness and death in Ashkenazi Judaism in sixteenth- through nineteenth-century Prague / Sylvie Anne Goldberg ; translated by Carol Cosman. Berkeley : University of California Press, 1996.

Death in Jewish life : burial and mourning customs among Jews of Europe and nearby communities / edited by Stefan C. Reif, Andreas Lehnardt and Avriel Bar-Levav. Boston : De Gruyter, 2014.

Every person's guide to death and dying in the Jewish tradition / Ronald H. Isaacs. Northvale, N.J. : Jason Aronson, 1999.

From this world to the next : Jewish approaches to illness, death & the afterlife. / by Jewish Theological Seminary of America. New York : The Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1999.

Jewish insights on death and mourning / edited with introductions by Jack Riemer ; foreword by Sherwin B. Nuland. New York : Schocken Books, 1996.

Jewish reflections on death/ Edited by Jack Riemer. Foreword by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. New York, Schocken Books 1975.

Marriage and Divorce

Jews and divorce / Edited by Jacob Freid. New York : KTAV Pub. House, 1968.

Marriage and the Jewish tradition; toward a modern philosophy of family living / by Felix Adler [and others]. New York : Philosophical Library, 1951.

Marriage, divorce, and the abandoned wife in Jewish law : a conceptual understanding of the agunah problems in America / Michael J. Broyde. Hoboken, NJ : KTAV Pub. House, 2001.

The Jewish law of divorce according to Bible and Talmud with some reference to its development in post-Talmudic times, / by David Werner Amram. Philadelphia : [Press of E. Stern & co., inc.], 1896.

The Jewish marriage : source of sanctity / by Joseph Breuer. [Translated from the German by Gertrude Hirschler]. New York : Published for the Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch Publications Society by Philipp Feldheim, 1956.

The jewish marriage anthology / by Philip and Hanna Goodman. Philadelphia : Jewish Publication Society of America, 1965.

The ketuba : Jewish marriage contracts through the ages / David Davidovitch ; foreword, Cecil Roth ; design, Avigail & Itshak Yoresh. Tel Aviv, Israel : E. Levin-Epstein Ltd., 1979.

The theory of marriage in Jewish law / by K. Kahana. Leiden : E.J. Brill, 1966.

Bar/Bat Mitzvahs

A summary of the Jewish faith : to be used at the confirmation of children. The Jewish festivals / Dr. G. Gottheil, Rabbi, Temple Emanu-El. New York : Press of Philip Cowen, [18--].

Bar-mitzvah for boyhood, youth, and manhood./ by H. Pereira Mendes. New York : Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, 1956.

Coming of age : your Bar/Bat mitzvah / by Benjamin Efron and Alvan D. Rubin. New York : Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1977.

The Bar Mitzvah treasury / edited by Azriel Eisenberg. New York : Behrman House, 1952.

The complete Bar-Mitzvah book with all haftorahs. Including English instructions and glossary of Hebrew religious terms. / by Joseph Marcus. New York, Hebrew Pub. Co. 1943.

Whose bar/bat mitzvah is this anyway? : a guide for parents through a family rite of passage / Judith Davis. New York : St. Martin's Griffin, 1998.