by Rachel Kranson
“When a son is born, every Jewish parent knows what ceremony will welcome him into the community . . . the brit milah, the circumcision ceremony. It is not as clear what to do to welcome a daughter, and that is both our challenge and our opportunity,” writes Debra Nussbaum Cohen in Celebrating Your New Jewish Daughter: Creating Jewish Ways to Welcome Baby Girls into the Covenant (Jewish Lights, $18.95). As this book correctly points out, the fact that there is no fixed ritual for ushering in Jewish daughters means that parents have the freedom to create more personal, creative celebrations.