Who was the first American girl widely recognized as having a bat mitzvah ceremony?

Judith Kaplan Eisenstein was the first American girl widely recognized as having a bat mitzvah ceremony.

She celebrated the milestone in New York City in 1922. Kaplan Eisenstein was the daughter of Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism. Her ceremony is often treated as an important early step in the development of the modern American bat mitzvah.

Her observance was modest by many contemporary standards. She read a passage from the Torah in English from the women’s section rather than conducting the full Torah reading practices now familiar in many egalitarian congregations. The event reflected the religious customs and gender boundaries of its time.

A frequent misconception is that her ceremony immediately created a universal practice. Bat mitzvah observance spread gradually, especially during the twentieth century, and its form differed among Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist communities.