Mitzvah Day International Day around the world. Though based within the UK's Jewish Community, Mitzvah Day traditionally marks the first day of UK National Inter Faith Week, and as a result has expanded to include participants from other faith communities as well. 'Mitzvah' is the Hebrew biblical term for 'deed' or 'commandment', which has come to mean 'good deed' or 'charitable act' in contemporary English. The 2017 date is November 19. Mitzvah Day International was founded by Laura Marks in 2005, who, upon returning to her native UK from a period spent in Los Angeles, decided to bring the 'Mitzvah Day' concept she
Bar and Bat Mitzvah the family and the community. Bar mitzvah is mentioned in the Mishnah (Ethics of the Fathers, ) and in the Talmud. In some classic sources the age of 13 appears for instance as the age from which males must fast on the Day of Atonement, while females fast from the age of 12. The age of b'nai mitzvah roughly coincides with physical puberty. The bar or bat mitzvah ceremony is usually held on the first Shabbat after a boy's thirteenth and a girl's twelfth birthday (or thirteenth in Reform congregations). "Bar" () is a Jewish Babylonian Aramaic word literally meaning