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Rabbi for Bar Mitzvah & Bat Mitzvah Ceremonies – Any Venue Blog

Adam Sandler’s Bar Mitzvah Movie on Netflix

August 9, 2022

I was disappointed to see that Adam Sandler is wearing a kippah (yarmulke) in his upcoming movie about a bat mitzvah and it’s not the kippah that I presented to him back in 2000 when he was on the set of the movie “Little Nicky.” The movie was being filmed on the street next to […]

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Netflix Founder Marc Randolph Celebrates Adult Bar Mitzvah

August 3, 2022

It’s never too late to celebrate a bar mitzvah! Netflix founder Marc Randolph recently celebrated his bar mitzvah. The website COL LIVE reports that the Netflix founder and Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur Marc Randolph had been recording another episode for his business podcast “That Will Never Work” when he was invited to put on tefillin […]

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Bat Mitzvah Dance at Detroit Synagogue Goes Viral 25 Years Later

July 25, 2022

Shelby Kaufman, a native Metro Detroit Jewish woman has gone viral after the Today Show on NBC picked up her viral TikTok video, which over 7 million people watched. Shelby made a side-by-side video of her original bat mitzvah dance and a recreation of her doing the same dance 25 years later. Shelby returned to […]

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Celebrating 100 Years Since the First Bat Mitzvah

March 18, 2022

Today, March 18, 2022, marks the 100 year anniversary since the first bat mitzvah100 year anniversary since the first bat mitzvah. Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan held the first public celebration of a bat mitzvah in the United States, for his daughter Judith, on March 18, 1922, at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism, his […]

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Transgender Bar Mitzvah Ceremony – They Mitzvah Challenges Jewish Traditions

March 16, 2022

In HBO’s ‘And Just Like That’ finale, a ‘they mitzvah’ challenges Jewish traditions From JTA News By Philissa Cramer February 3, 2022 The previews for the season finale of “And Just Like That,” the “Sex and the City” reboot airing on HBO, suggested that viewers would get to see a “they mitzvah.” And for most […]

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They Mitzvah – Sex & the City’s Reboot

February 25, 2022
They Mitzvah - Charlotte York - Sex and the City

In the final episodes of “And Just Like That” on HBO Max, Charlotte York-Goldenblatt (Kristin Davis) helped her nonbinary child, Rock, prepare for their traditional Jewish coming-of-age ceremony. Typically (traditionally?), bar and bat mitzvahs, in which 13-year-old boys and 12-year-old (often, also 13-year-old) girls are welcomed into adulthood and called up to the Torah for the […]

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Rep. Gabby Giffords Becomes a Bat Mitzvah in Arizona Ceremony

December 2, 2021

Gabby Giffords’ bat mitzvah was as joyous and tearful as you’d expect As former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords stood before the congregation of Temple Chaverim in Tucson, Ariz., and kissed her tallit, preparing to chant from the Torah for her bat mitzvah, Rabbi Stephanie Aaron placed her hand atop Giffords’ hand, her voice rising and […]

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Bar Mitzvah A Capella Song – Parody of Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5

October 21, 2021

  The Pella performers are a wonderful a capella group who put their own bar mitzvah spin on Maroon 5’s “Moves Like Jagger.” Check out the a capella bar mitzvah song, “Moves Like Moses.” Enjoy it.  

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Pew Report on Jewish Americans – May, 11, 2021

May 11, 2021

Here is the latest Pew Report on Jewish Americans in 2020, published by the Pew Research Center. I include this on the Mitzvah Rabbi website because many of the statistics and findings are telling when it comes to more Jewish American families choosing to celebrate their children’s bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah in alternative ways, […]

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Unaffiliated Jews Get Creative for Bar and Bat Mitzvahs

May 11, 2021

Here’s a great article from the Jewish Exponent about Unaffiliated Jews being creative with their children’s bar/bat mitzvah ceremonies: By Hilary Danailova There was no question that the Danskys of Livingston, New Jersey, were going to have their children Bar and Bat Mitzvahed. There was also no question of joining a synagogue to do so. […]

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