There was a recent article published in The New York Times on dealing with being adopted, Chinese and becoming a Bat Mitzvah. The article is interesting - certainly worth reading, although please be forewarned that the description of the Bat Mitzvah is not necessarily representative of Bar and Bat Mitzvah celebrations in general. The article does bring up very good issues to discuss and to think about - ideas of heritage, history and identity - things that interracial Jewish adoptive families deal with on a daily basis.

Fu Qian, renamed Cecelia Nealon-Shapiro at 3 months, was one of the first Chinese children — most of them girls — taken in by American families after China opened its doors to international adoption in the early 1990s. Now, at 13, she is one of the first to complete the rite of passage into Jewish womanhood known as bat mitzvah.

She will not be the last. Across the country, many Jewish girls like her will be studying their Torah portions, struggling to master the plaintive singsong of Hebrew liturgy and trying to decide whether to wear Ann Taylor or a traditional Chinese outfit to the after-party.

There are plenty of American Jews, of course, who do not “look Jewish.” And grappling with identity is something all adopted children do, not just Chinese Jews.

Check out the full article, as well as two letters submitted to the paper here.