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Tag: Bar Mitzvah

How to Make Your Own Tallit

March 3, 2024

I recently had a bat mitzvah student ask if she could make her own tallit. She loves tigers and recently ordered bed sheets with pictures of tigers on them, but they were the wrong size. The company sent a replacement set and told her to keep the original set. She asked me if she could […]

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Mitzvah Project Mania

September 29, 2023

From eJewishPhilanthropy By Esther D. Kustanowitz New initiatives look to help Jewish teens connect to themselves and their community before becoming adults Gone are the days of donating a portion of your gift money to charity; groups across the U.S. want b’nai mitzvah projects to resonate. When Elie Klein was 13, he knew that giving […]

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Bat Mitzvah is the Theme for New Adam Sandler Movie on Netflix

August 24, 2023

‘You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah’ is an endearing Sandler family affair By Amy Spiro – Times of Israel This might be Adam Sandler’s most Jewish movie ever — and that’s saying something. From “Uncut Gems” to “The Meyerowitz Stories,” “Sandy Wexler” and “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan,” Sandler has long […]

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Representative Adam Schiff’s Bar Mitzvah

March 7, 2023

  “Here I am at 13, in all my ‘glory’ at my Bar Mitzvah. I’ll admit, it’s easy to chuckle at this photo – the classic 1970s bow tie, the braces, the yarmulke, the looks – but it is also an opportunity to tell you a little about how I approach my faith. Throughout my […]

Mitzvah Moments

ESPN’s Jeff Passan Recalls His Bar Mitzvah and Hebrew School

February 24, 2023

From JTA.org (by Jacob Gurvis) For tuned-in baseball fans, Jeff Passan is everywhere. As ESPN’s senior MLB insider, he frequently breaks some of the sport’s biggest news and appears on several of the global sports network’s television, radio and podcast programs. After two decades of reporting, can anything make him nervous? There is one athlete […]

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The Role of Grandparents in Their Grandchildren’s B-Mitzvah Experience

October 26, 2022

BY RAHEL MUSLEAH JEWISH GRANDPARENTS NETWORK REIMAGINING ROLE OF GRANDPARENTS IN GRANDCHILDREN’S B-MITZVAH EXPERIENCE We all recognize this B-Mitzvah scene: A 13-year-old stands on the bimah, chants from the Torah and/or haftarah, and delivers a d’var Torah prepared with the help of the rabbi or educator. The extended family sits in the front row, emotional […]

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Am I Really A Bat Mitzvah (An Original Essay)

September 20, 2022

*This is a wonderful original essay by a Jewish day school graduate who is now in high school. This essay won first prize in the Cohn-Haddow Center essay contest in 2022. Am I Really A Bat Mitzvah By Ellery Gnesin Tuesday, March 24th 2020 Standing there, in the middle of dancing at 8 o’clock in […]

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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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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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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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Zoom Mitzvahs – Virtual Bar Mitzvah and Virtual Bat Mitzvah Services

March 23, 2021

From the Jerusalem Post February 28, 2021 NEW YORK – When the Bregman family was planning their son Daniel’s bar mitzvah this past November, parents Eleanor and Peter found themselves with a lot more responsibilities –and ownership – over the process than they had with the two previous bat mitzvahs they had planned. Daniel’s bar mitzvah, which […]

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Bar Mitzvah Projects During the Covid Pandemic

January 26, 2021

Community Leadership Immersive Programs: B’nai Mitzvah Projects in a Virtual World By Tali Puterman Thiago in Lynn reached into his mailbox and cautiously opened a letter from BIJAN, the Boston Immigrant Justice Accompaniment Network. BIJAN, a network of faith communities, individuals, and other activist groups working to reduce the escalating harm of our immigrant system […]

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What It’s Like to Have a Virtual Bar Mitzvah

October 6, 2020

From JewishBoston.com (by Kara Baskin): Among other things, social distancing makes large gatherings like bar and bat mitzvahs pretty much impossible. So Sudbury’s Erica Silverman, a member of Temple Shir Tikva, started a Facebook group to help families in the same boat. Why did you launch this Facebook group? The Virtual Mitzvah Planning group was […]

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Epic Zoom Bar Mitzvah

October 6, 2020

From the Jewish Daily Forward: “We could play a YouTube version of ‘Adon Olam’ to a really catchy tune!” “We could play personal messages for him from family all over the world!” “We could have an Israeli rock star sing him a song!” These were the “What ifs” that drove the conversation between me and […]

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For Some, Zoom Bar And Bat Mitzvahs Highlight ‘Most Meaningful And Memorable Moments’

October 6, 2020

From NPR: As Gabe Silverman chants his Torah portion, he’s intensely focused on every word. It’s the culmination of months of study and the high point of his Bar Mitzvah service. The same is true for almost every 12- or 13-year-old celebrating a bar or bat mitzvah. “For the Torah service, I was very nervous […]

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Virtual Bar Mitzvahs During the COVID Pandemic

April 28, 2020

Throwing candy at the computer: What celebrating your bat mitzvah looks like in the time of the coronavirus From JTA – Midway through Lila Duke’s bat mitzvah ceremony, her family’s cat made an appearance. Minnie’s interruption was one of many ways that Lila’s coming-of-age ceremony was different from what she had expected. While the 12-year-old […]

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