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Why I decided to give my dog a 'bark mitzvah' — a report from Coco's coming-of-age ceremony

JL;DR SUMMARY Linda Matchan recounts the experience of hosting a 'bark mitzvah' for her 13-year-old terrier, Coco, a playful adaptation of the traditional Jewish coming-of-age ceremony. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

TraditionReform JudaismCelebrationCommunityInclusivityRabbisCeremonyBark MitzvahPetsCoco

Places mentioned

Boston, Massachusetts, United States
"I flew there from Boston, but the Bark Mitzvah was rained out and I couldnt be there for the rain date."
Houston, Texas, United States
"It was my sister who told me about it and persuaded me to come this year. I flew there from Boston."
Westborough, Massachusetts, United States
"I reached out apprehensively to Rabbi Michael Swarttz of Beth Tikvah Synagogue in Westborough, Massachusetts; Id met him years ago in my neighborhood dog park."

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This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 70929
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2025-12-21 05:31:11 UTC
Curated 2025-12-21 08:30:56 UTC