SOLVED. YA book from late 80/early 90s about a Jewish boy preparing his Bar Mitzvah who learns he is not technically Jewish under Jewish law. [s]

[Michelle]

I read this book at some point in my childhood in the late 1980s or very early 1990s -- however my (vague) feeling is that it may have been published in the early 70s to mid-80s.

I think it is set in NY or NJ -- not in a Hasidic community, but rather in an upper middle class secular world.

Book is English language, American.

The boy is a bit of a goof-off/troublemaker in Hebrew School and is not taking Bar Mitzvah preparation seriously

Then he somehow learns that perhaps his mother was not born Jewish and either did not convert or did not convert technically correctly such that he will also not be considered Jewish under Jewish law

Now he has to decide what Judaism means to him and whether he wants to convert and prepare rigorously for his Bar Mitzvah.

[bookel]

Searched worldcat.org mitzvah with year range, juvenile fiction book English. I was hoping it was one of Barbara Cohen's, a solid children's/young adult author. I have the book but yet to read it. It's on openlibrary, free to borrow. https://openlibrary.org/search?q=King...

King of the seventh grade
Author: Barbara Cohen
Publisher: New York : Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, ©1982.
Summary:
Thirteen-year-old Vic hates Hebrew school and is indifferent to his upcoming bar mitzvah, until he is suddenly disallowed from participating in either.
Subjects
Jews -- Fiction.
Bar mitzvah -- Fiction.
Bar mitzvah.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...

[Michelle]

You are an amazing magician and I cannot thank you enough!!