By Anna Balfanz

While sixteen-year-old Aviva Lucas forgets many details of her Bat-Mitzvah, she remembers the questions floating around the Kiddush table. As the guests picked up cups, they began muttering to each other, “How are these made of corn?”

Aviva, like many teenagers, knew she wanted` to host a vegan or vegetarian Bat or Bar Mitzvah. A vegetarian since fourth grade, she ensured that as many aspects as possible, from the food to the theme, reflected her devotion to animals and the environment. B’nei and B’not Mitzvah celebrate not only entering into the Jewish adulthood but also cultivating a personal identity within the Jewish community. As a highly personalized event, B’nei and B’not Mitzvah are a time to share your individuality and demonstrate to the community that you’re not simply another member, you’re you. You get to select the theme, color scheme, centerpieces, invitations, gift-bags, mitzvah (service) project and, most importantly, the food.

A vegetarian or vegan Bat or Bar Mitzvah allows you to embrace your passions and share them with others. Helpful businesses and creative ideas make catering a large vegan event completely realistic and non-stressful. From the food to the gift-bags, more ways than ever exist to fully embrace a vegan Simcha (celebration).

Aviva Lucas’s family fully supported her desire for a Bat Mitzvah with the theme of “Growth.” They ordered kippot crafted from recycled material, named the tables after native plants, and then used actual potted native plants as centerpieces for the guests to bring home and plant. To minimize wasting resources, the Lucas family ordered biodegradable dishes, cups, and cutlery made from corn, imported from Eco-Products in Boulder, Colorado. She catered with Catering by Yaffa, who worked with the family to create the perfect menu. Yaffa transcended their usual menu to help the Lucas host an Indian cuisine Kiddush, preparing foods such as a tomato sauce noodle dish and a Lucas family recipe for chana masala. Far from elongating an already lengthy process, Aviva’s family prepared for the Bat Mitzvah in five months.

Rivital Singer, from Baltimore, Maryland, age 17, lives with a vegan mother, vegetarian brother, two meat-eating brothers, and father who eats meat, “Rav Kook style.” Nevertheless, they observe a Kosher home with only one set of dishes, and if anyone in the Singer house wants to eat meat, according to Rivital, “They need to get it elsewhere.” From start to finish, Rivital accomplished her goal for a vegetarian, eco-friendly Bat Mitzvah. In order to conserve paper, Rivital opted for virtual online invitations, which the guests RSVPed to by email. Like Aviva, she only provided corn and sugar dishes to serve food on.

Rivital’s family expertly took the food situation into their own hands. Rather than locate a caterer, Rivital’s mother cooked meals for between fifty and two-hundred guests per each meal. To accomplish this seemingly massive goal, Rivital’s mother, Rivital, and family friends, “Started working on some of it a month or so before and kept it in the freezer.”

“I loved helping my mother cook,” Rivital remembers. Not only B’not Mitzvah celebrate cruelty-free Simchas. Bonnie Sorak hosted vegan B’nei Mitzvah for three of her sons, Jacob, Ryan, and Matthew, and will for her fourth son, Aaron.

Bonnie’s family turned vegan on their oldest son Jacob’s first birthday. By the time his Bar-Mitzvah approached, the only question was how, not whether, to host a vegan celebration. Bonnie figured it out when she curled up with the book Mitzvah Chic by Gail Anthony Greenberg, which states that Bar-Mitzvot should be about two things: the Torah and the child.

Jacob’s Torah portion was the sin of the spies, Numbers 13-14, in which Moses sends spies out to observe Canaan and report back. The spies return with a completely negative report, which the Israelites accept without considering G-d’s hand. For the Soraks, this brought to mind the question, “What would you do in this situation?” and then, simply “What would you do?” In Judaism, Bonnie explains, “We do G-d’s work in our own hands.”

With the theme, “What would you do?” the Soraks wanted every guest to leave the Bar Mitzvah with one achievable environmental challenge. For the centerpieces, they placed magnetic glass stones with environmental messages written on them inside of vases. The stones had challenges such as, “Ride my bike to my friend’s house,” Turn off water when brushing my teeth,” “Turn off lights when leaving the room,” and “Support agriculture.” After the service, each guest brought home their favorite stone message.

Jacob’s Bar Mitzvah offered only vegan food, with an Italian theme. This meant lasagna with marinara sauce, Caesar salad, garlic bread, peanut saute, vegan egg rolls, and a much-desired dark chocolate fountain with fruit.

Her second eldest son, Ryan, also incorporated his Parsha (Torah/Bible reading) into his theme. His portion included the verse, “When you besiege a city for many days to wage war against it to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them, for you may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Is the tree of the field a man, to go into the siege before you?” (Deuteronomy 20:19). Reading about the prohibition against destroying fruit trees, Ryan decided to, appropriately, make his entire theme, “Trees.” They named each table after a tree, and gave two plantable bare root hazelnut trees to each guest.

For catering, Ryan’s menu kept the Italian theme, except replaced the dark chocolate fountain with a smoothie bar. His celebration involved activities such as ping-pong and rock climbing, so he and his family rationalized that providing too much food would mean lots of uneaten leftovers. The third son, Matthew, chose a less environmental theme, but that didn’t stop the food from being festive and vegan. His Bar-Mitzvah fell during “Thanksgivikkah,” the overlap between Thanksgiving and Chanukah in 2013. This meant perfect timing for a potato latke bar, vegan sour cream, and more smoothies.

Lastly, along with the food comes the utensils, napkins, and dishes. You can purchase biodegradable options from companies such as Ecoproducts, Green Wear, and the Biodegradable Store for everything from napkins to trash bags.

By interspersing your veganism into your Bar or Bat Mitzvah, you’re blending your new responsibly to the Jewish community with your established commitment to animal and environmental welfare. You’re sharing your identity as you blend into the Jewish community, and entering a new phase of your life alongside your previous and ongoing passions. A Bar or Bat Mitzvah represents a blend of endings and beginnings, joyfulness and seriousness, and individuality and togetherness, which incorporating your veganism emphasizes perfectly.

Celebrating a vegan, eco-friendly Bar Mitzvah is easier than ever. From the beginning to the end, there are numerous ways to keep it as eco-friendly as possible. Long before the celebration itself, you need to select invitations to send to your family, friends, and classmates, and may suddenly find yourself using lots of paper and ink. Luckily, there are numerous more eco-friendly, yet still beautiful, options. You can select invitations crafted from recycled paper, plant-able invitations, invitations with soy ink, or even send e-invitations to completely minimize your paper and ink waste. Some great companies include Twisted Limb Paper, Green Field Paper Company, Bella Figura, and Smock Paper for physical invitations, andGreenvelope for virtual ones.

Twisted Limb Paper answers many prayers regarding beautiful, environmental options. They not only provide invitations but also save-the-date cards, thank-you notes, programs, guest books, place cards, and bookmark favors. Twisted Limb Paper handcrafts every item from 100% recycled materials, and adds pressed grass, flowers, and wildflower seeds for a gorgeous, earthy look. While you could purchase all of these from Twisted Limb, you may chose to forgo certain options, such as save-the-date cards. A simple website or email could suffice, which saves money and resources.

During the service, the B’nie and B’not Mitzvah usually provide monogrammed kippot for the guests and synagogue. Rather than simply straying away from suede or leather kippot, you can take the next step and order kippot crafted from recycled cardboard, or plant-able kippot made of biodegradable materials and seeds. KoolKipah offers recycled cardboard kippot which mimic the appearance of suede kippot, Circle of Life provided 100% biodegradable, planta-able kippot and Jessy Judiaca’s provides certified vegan, eco-suede kippot in multiple colors.

Along with kippot, the Bar and Bat Mitzvah usually purchase or inherit their own tallit. In you choose to purchase a new tallit, you can try finding tallit made from organic material and soy ink. Levy Judaica handcrafts offers handcrafted, eco-friendly tallit and tallit bags, as well as kippot. Instructions exist online which explain how to create a kosher tallit out of a scarf, which are easier and cheaper to purchase made from organic materials.

Before a Bat Mitzvah, you may want to treat yourself to hair and make-up. If so, there are countless venues which provide cruelty-free nail, make-up, and hair products that weren’t tested on animals. Either have someone you know or yourself apply these products, or find a professional who’s willing to use the products you provide. PETA provides extensive lists for companies that sell each of these products, giving you countless options for every part of your beauty regiment.

For the centerpieces at Kiddush, Aviva and the Soraks both opted for great alternatives to some more conventional and wasteful options. Besides providing plants for guests to bring home, another idea is having fruit basket centerpieces that you can donate to shelters after the service. To spread the message, you can scatter around colorful bookmarks or easels with vegan food and products for guests to bring home and consider.

The mitzvah project purposely serves as the most personalized aspect of a Bar and Bat Mitzvah. For an animal-friendly project, you could make blankets for animal shelters, collect supplies for shelters, such as towels and buckets (call in advance), volunteer at an animal shelter if age permits, host a sale or event that collects money for local animal welfare charities, or create a website that explains the benefits of veganism. For environmental projects, you can arrange a litter-cleaning or gardening event, volunteer at a farm or animal sanctuary, or start a green campaign around your school.

With all of this established, there’s the final frontier: the food.If you have the ability, time, room, and stamina, then cooking all the food with your own recipes like Rivital’s family can keep it vegan, create memories, and truly make the Simcha your own. However, not everyone has the ability to cook for so many people. Luckily, there are many other options. You could begin by considering ethnic food, such as Israeli, Indian, Italian, or Asian, which offers many vegan options, from falafel to chana masala.

Many caterers and restaurants offer numerous vegan options, even if they aren’t well-advertised. When you scroll through The Black Sheep’s catering websites, the menus seem packed with meat and dairy. Nevertheless, dietitian and lecturer Reed Mangels catered two vegan B’not Mitzvah with this company. By working together to create a menu, they included appetizers such as Seasonal Crudité with tuscan white bean spread, and a meal with quinoa salad, a bagel spread with hummus, baba ganoush, and cucumbers, assorted Baguette Finger Sandwiches, and sesame tofu. Desserts included coconut fruit bars, blueberry streusel bars, and oat chocolate chip cookies.

Catering by Yaffa, the caterers that helped Aviva, situated in Pikesville, Maryland, also cater vegan B’nee and B’not Mitzvah. As a Kosher business that does not mix meat and milk, they already serve no dairy products. Vegan options include, among other options, couscous salad, roasted cauliflower, Portobello napoleon, spinach and potato stuffed with mushroom sauce, apple cobbler without eggs, a rice medley, and a vegetable medley.

In order to locate her caterers, Bonnie Sorak visited a nature center with a list of green caterers. Whether you locate a caterer in this manner or simply contact ones near you, caterers and restaurants will often work with you to provide a fully vegan meal for everyone’s enjoyment.

Lastly, along with the food comes the utensils, napkins, and dishes. You can purchase biodegradable options from companies such as Ecoproducts, Green Wear, and the Biodegradable Store for everything from napkins to trash bags.

By interspersing your veganism into your Bar or Bat Mitzvah, you’re blending your new responsibility to the Jewish community with your established commitment to animal and environmental welfare. You’re sharing your identity as you blend into the Jewish community, and entering a new phase of your life alongside your previous and ongoing passions. A Bar or Bat Mitzvah represents a blend of endings and beginnings, joyfulness and seriousness, and individuality and togetherness, which incorporating your veganism emphasizes perfectly.

Anna Balfanz wrote this article while interning with The Vegetarian Resource Group.

For more ideas on how to cater a party, see:
http://www.vrg.org/bookstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=63