This weekend, Madonna’s two youngest daughters, Stella and Estere, celebrated their bat mitzvah with their mother and older brother, David Banda. The two seemed joyful, wearing dresses with a matching cut, one in white and the other pink, and flanked by their mom in a floral flowy dress of her own.
In pictures that the iconic singer shared to her Instagram stories this past Sunday, you can see the girls smiling while looking at a Haftorah book with their rabbi and reading from the Torah, and their brother David, 18, donning a tallis and participating in the Hagbah, the traditional lifting up of the Torah scroll.
“Bar-mitzva day! Stella-Estere 12-12,” Madonna captioned one of the pictures from the day (a bar mitzvah is technically the term for a boy’s celebration, usually celebrated at age 13, while a bat mitzvah is the term for girls’ celebrations, which is celebrated at age 12 or 13).
Bar mitzvah for Stella and Estere ! They grew up so fast ! two gorgeous classy ladies 💜 pic.twitter.com/lEFA9tmqWu
— Madonna Ultimate (@MadonnaUltimate) September 8, 2024
Also in attendance that day was Madonna’s longtime business partner and manager, Israeli-born Guy Oseary, who’s been working with her for the past three decades. He’s also the manager of Amy Schumer and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
In one of the photos, the girls also held up a cake that said “mazel tov Estere and Stella.”
The twins celebrated their 12th birthdays on August 26 with a delightful bash that included water slides, an airbrushing workshop, homemade pizza and more. In an Instagram post, Madonna, who adopted the girls from an orphanage in Malawi in 2017, wrote: “I blinked and you are almost teenagers.. Time is a ferocious Beast!! You are both SO FIERCE -talented-opinionated-and full of LIFE. Can’t wait to read the next chapter.. LOVE YOU BOTH SO MUCH !!!”
Estere and Stella aren’t the first of Madonna’s children to celebrate a Jewish rite of passage. Back in July of 2013, Madonna and her ex-husband, director Guy Ritchie, celebrated their son Rocco’s bar mitzvah at an intimate and joyful ceremony at New York’s Kabbalah Center. Rocco, a model and artist, was spotted in Tel Aviv back in March of 2023, attending the local fashion week events. Madonna has performed in Israel on multiple occasions and has toured the country. In 2007, the late Israeli president hosted her and other Kabbalah followers at his house during a Rosh Hashanah visit. In 2009, she spent Shabbat with the Netanyahus. Her Ray of Light Foundation works with Palestinian organizations. In 2012, she opened her world tour at the Ramat Gan stadium in Israel, sharing a message of peace, inviting those from local NGOs fighting for peace and saying that you can’t be a fan of Madonna’s without wanting peace in the world.
“No matter how many laws we change, no matter how many percentages of land we give back, no matter how many talks, no matter how many wars, if we don’t [treat] every human being with dignity and respect we will never have peace,” she told the huge crowd gathered to see her there. “So start today, start now. Each and everyone of you, you are the future, we are the future, and if there is peace here in the Middle East then there can be peace in the world.”
Madonna also performed at the Eurovision in 2019, sharing a message of peace from that stage despite the protests against her performance, and defying Eurovision guidelines by having dancers with Israeli and Palestinian flags put their arms around one another’s shoulders as she wrapped up her performance of the song “The Future.”
After October 7, Madonna was one of the most high-profile celebrities to share a message of solidarity with the Jewish victims of the attack:
“Watching all of these families and especially children being herded, assaulted and murdered in the streets is heartbreaking,” she wrote. “Imagine if this was happening to you??”
“Conflicts can never be resolved with violence,” she added, writing that her heart “goes out to Israel” and to the “families and homes that have been destroyed.”
“I am aware that this is the work of Hamas and there are many innocent people in Palestine who do not support this terrorist organization,” she continued. “Let us all Pray. For Israel, for peace, and for the world.”
Madonna became acquainted with Judaism early on in her life, thanks to her father who wanted her to be exposed to as many cultures and religions as possible. Back in 1982, it was Jewish music mogul Seymour Stein who signed a very young Madonna to his record label, from his hospital bed. She got into Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, through her friend, the film producer Susan Becker, and became close with the late Rabbi Philip Berg, leader of the NY Center for Kabbalah, and took up the Hebrew name Esther. She has said that studying Kabbalah helped her be a better mother. She incorporated the 17th century poem “Im Nin’alu,” written by Rabbi Shalom Shabazi, in her 2005 song “Isaac,” using the voice of singer Yitzhak Sinwani, who teaches at the Kabbalah Centre. (The poem was first turned into a fabulous pop song by Ofra Haza.) I personally think it’s quite a bop.
Still, despite studying Jewish mysticism many years, she doesn’t consider herself Jewish. “I don’t affiliate myself with any specific religious group. I connect to different ritualistic aspects of different belief systems, and I see the connecting thread between all religious beliefs,” she told Rolling Stone in 2015. She never officially converted to the religion. She told the magazine that she hears “the Torah every Saturday,” keeps Shabbat and says certain prayers.
“My son was bar mitzvahed. So this appears like I’m Jewish, but these rituals are connected to what I describe as the Tree of Life consciousness and have more to do with the idea of being an Israelite, not Jewish,” she continued. “Some people would say, well, you do a lot of things that Jews do, but I would say I do a lot of things that people did before Judaism existed. And I believe what I practice has to do with something deeper than religion, that it embodies all religions, including Judaism. And Christianity. And Islam.”
That is so very on brand for the always rebellious singer. Madonna has gotten in trouble with a lot of religious leaders from all faiths, and yes, that includes rabbis. Back in 1992, she was called out for possible antisemitic lyrics in “Justify My Love”, and some rabbis were definitely unhappy with her for making money off the memory of Kabbalistic scholar Yitzhak Luria in “Isaac.” She’s also drawn ire for posting videos of antisemitic and homophobic Rev. Louis Farrakhan.
Basically, Madonna is going to Madonna. At 66, there’s still no one who can quite compare to the boundary-breaking and fearless singer, and clearly very loving mama. A big mazel tov to Estere and Stella.
