Life Cycle Ceremonies
We take pride in welcoming all who wish to grow, celebrate, and find comfort in Jewish lifecycle ceremonies. We'll work with you to identify and personalize Jewish texts and rituals. Together, we'll create an individualized ceremony that is a reflection of you and your family's values and traditions.
We facilitate Baby Welcoming/Naming Ceremonies, Weddings/Commitment Ceremonies, Funerals and Memorial Services.
Our Breit Mitzvah program is the only of its kind in the region. Teens select a topic related to Judaism and spend a year with a 1 on 1 mentor crafting a presentation for their friends, family, and community.
Baby Naming/
Child Welcoming
Celebrating the birth or adoption of a child is an opportunity for
family, friends, and community to make commitments to the child and to celebrate their new life. It's also an opportunity for parents to share the values with which they intend to raise their child.
Choosing English, Hebrew, and/or Yiddish names can link a child to the story of the Jewish people, creating an ongoing evolution of what it means to be Jewish.
A baby naming/child welcoming ceremony could include the parents reading a letter to the child, guests writing down hopes for the child, wrapping the baby in cloth that is significant to your family, and more. Like any good celebration, food is always a good idea.
Email lifecycles@folkshul.org and our Life Cycles Coordinator will be happy to answer any questions and help you start planning your ceremony.
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Breit
Mitzvah
Our breit mitzvah ceremonies are part of our Folkshul curriculum and open to all enrolled students. In addition to the regular class work, the breit mitzvah student chooses a topic of Jewish thought/history/culture that is important to them and spends about a year studying that topic with an adult mentor from the community. The student then presents the fruits of their study as the centerpiece of a customized ceremony that the family helps to create.
The process is designed to have the child integrate their personal interests with their Jewish values and knowledge. The hope is that this will encourage the student to explore and discover elements of the Jewish experience that are personally meaningful. The process is also designed to be relevant to modern Judaism and reflect ethical, intellectual, and Humanistic principles, as well as welcome the young adult into the worldwide, historical, and local Jewish community.
Our program welcomes all children of all genders, learning styles and talents. We find our students walk away from their breit mitzvah work with a sense of pride and accomplishment, and then walk through their lives with confidence in themselves and their Jewish identities.
Topics of recent Breit Mitzvah include: My Family's Journey to America, Klezmer Music, Jews in Comic Books, Anti-Jewish Propaganda in Nazi Germany, African American and Jewish Relations, History of the Bar Mitzvah and Rites of Passage in other Cultures, The Plight of Argentinean Jews, The Use of Wine in Jewish Tradition, and Women Who Heal The World.
Weddings & Commitment Ceremonies
Secular Humanistic Judaism positions marriage as an equal partnership with characteristics of mutual support, intimacy, and growth.
Secular Jewish wedding ceremonies reflect humanistic values and celebrate Jewish culture. We can include a ketuba, a chuppah, ring exchange, and breaking of glass (by one or both partners), and other personalized interpretations of the Jewish wedding ceremony.
We're happy to comfortably co-officiate with leaders from other cultures and faiths. We support the union of any two adults regardless of their gender or sexuality.
Email lifecycles@folkshul.org and our Life Cycles Coordinator will be happy to answer any questions and help you start planning your ceremony.
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Funerals & Memorials
Death is inevitable to everyone and hardest on those who are grieving. We can recognize the difficulty of loss, celebrate the life of our loved one, and find comfort in coming together.
Mourning within a community allows the family to share memories and allows the community to provide support for the grieving family.
A Secular Humanistic funeral or memorial service can include secular versions of the mourner’s kaddish and other traditions. The family helps create the service that reflects their beliefs, and the wishes of their loved one, in a way that feels both comforting and authentic.
Having an officiant at a Shiva call can help the mourners to focus their thoughts and express their emotions. A short Shiva service can be arranged for family and guests.
Email lifecycles@folkshul.org and our Life Cycles Coordinator will warmly answer any questions and help you start planning your ceremony.
Our Ceremony Officiants
As a psychotherapist, Shira Collings (she/they)
has always enjoyed supporting others through
life transitions of all kinds. She decided to bring
this together with her passion for Secular Humanistic
Judaism by becoming a Lifecycle Officiant through
the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism. Shira is honored to be able to help people commemorate the important moments in their lives in ways that align with their values, surrounded by the warmth of family, friends, and community. She is especially thrilled to work with adolescents to connect to Judaism and discover their Jewish identities in ways that are meaningful to them and their families.
In addition to officiating Breit Mitzvot, weddings, and funerals, Shira enjoys officiating ceremonies honoring life experiences that are not often commemorated in our culture. Some transitions that they offer ceremonies for include: gender transition, divorce/separation, deciding to be childfree, infertility and pregnancy loss, moving to a new home, recovery from surgery or illness, and pet adoption and pet loss.
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Jordi Shuster (she/they) is a graduate of Folkshul,
having been a member of the community since the
age of 5. Jordi is grateful to have the opportunity
as one of Folkshul's Life Cycle Officiant to
recognize and celebrate traditional milestones in
ways that are meaningful to Secular Humanistic Jews.
Jordi's own Folkshul bat mitzvah, where she studied
Jews in Vaudeville, was a formative experience that
she remembers fondly. During the week, Jordi
works as a water resources engineer in
Philadelphia and studies at Villanova University
towards a Master's Degree in Civil Engineering.
Jordi is a certified Officiant by the International
Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism and is
licensed to perform weddings in the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Kate Forest grew up as a Secular Jew and has raised her children in the Secular
Humanistic Jewish community. As the Life Cycle Ceremonialist for Folkshul, she
has ushered families through the breit mitzvah process, welcomed babies
through naming ceremonies, and celebrated the lives of those who have died.
She is an Officiant through the International Institute for Secular Humanistic
Judaism, and is licensed to perform weddings in the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania.
When working with individuals and families to craft meaningful ceremonies,
she draws on the participants’ personal diverse experiences. She believes that
each individual’s unique qualities should be reflected in meaningful and relevant
life events. Bringing her experience as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over
twenty years’ experience, she is also a professional writer and enjoys eliciting
the creative story within each person.
She is open to working with leaders from different faiths and looks forward to
incorporating diverse elements in life cycle ceremonies.
In her capacity as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Kate provides chaplaincy services to any Folkshul member. Visiting a hospital or home during an illness, Kate can counsel the family through difficult times, providing practical advice as well comfort.