Editing Bar and bat mitzvah (section)

== Alternative ceremonies ==
[[File:Flickr - Government Press Office (GPO) - Bar Mitzvah at the Western Wall.jpg|thumb|Bar mitzvah for 1,000 immigrant boys from Russia at the Western Wall, 1995]]
[[File:Jerusalem Western Wall BW 4.JPG|thumb|Bar mitzvah at the Western Wall]]

Instead of reading from the Torah, some [[Humanistic Judaism|Humanist Jews]] prefer a research paper on a topic in Jewish history to mark their coming of age.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.shma.com/2000/06/mollys-unforgettable-bat-mitzvah/ |title=Molly's Unforgettable Bat Mitzvah |first=Linda |last=Arking |publisher=Sh'ma, A Journal of Jewish Ideas |date=June 1, 2000 |access-date=August 15, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Bar/Bat Mitzvah Program |publisher=[[City Congregation for Humanistic Judaism]] |url=http://www.citycongregation.org/index.php?pageID=0031 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080420094118/http://www.citycongregation.org/index.php?pageID=0031 |archive-date=April 20, 2008 <!-- LAST archive here that isn't dead -->}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=July 15, 2009 |title=At This Bar Mitzvah, Dylan's The Only Prophet |author=Carolyn Slutsky |work=[[The Jewish Week]] |location=New York |url=http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a16283/News/New_York.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090720071643/http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a16283/News/New_York.html |archive-date=July 20, 2009}}</ref> Secular Jewish Sunday schools and communities—including those affiliated with the Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations and [[The Workers Circle]]—encourage the youngsters to select any topic that interests them and relates to the Jewish part of their identities.

The [[kibbutz]] movement in Israel also encouraged the celebration of the bar mitzvah. All those coming of age in the community for that year would take on a project and research in a topic of Jewish or Zionist interest. Today many kibbutz children are opting for a more traditional bar mitzvah celebration.{{Citation needed|date=May 2012}}

Among some Jews, a man who has reached the age of 83 will celebrate a second bar mitzvah, under the logic that in the Hebrew Bible it says that a normal lifespan is 70 years, so that an 83-year-old can be considered 13 in a second lifetime.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishanswers.org/ask-the-rabbi-category/lifecycle-events/bar-bat-mitzvah/?p=2891|title=LifeCycle Events: Bar and Bat Mitzvah }}</ref> This ritual is becoming more common as people live longer, healthier lives.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://forward.com/culture/jewishness/384977/why-83-is-the-new-13-for-bar-mitzvahs/|title=Why 83 Is The New 13 For Bar Mitzvahs|author=Amy Oringel|date=October 19, 2017|website=[[Forward.com]]|access-date=January 31, 2018}}</ref>

A [[bark mitzvah]] is a pseudo-traditional observance and celebration of a dog's [[coming of age]],<ref name="BarkMitzvahNYT">{{cite news |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/20/nyregion/20mitzvah.html |title= Today He Is a Dog; Actually He Always Was |author= Lily Koppel |work= [[The New York Times]] |date= December 20, 2004}}</ref><ref name="CohenGindlinBook">Shari Cohen and Marcelo Gindlin. ''Alfie's Bark Mitzvah''. [[Chandler, Arizona]]: Five Star Publications, 2007. Book with audio CD. {{ISBN|1-58985-055-6|978-1589850552}}.</ref> as in the Jewish traditional bar and bat mitzvahs. The term has been in use since at least 1958, when Beverly Hills couple Janet and Sonny Salter held a bark mitzvah for their 13 year old dog, Windy.<ref name="Salter Bark Mitzvah">{{cite book |last1=Salter |first1=Janet |last2=Salter |first2=Sonny |title=Beverly Hills Gothic |date=2009 |publisher=Salter Lipsky Press |location=Beverly Hills |page=290 |url=https://charlie07.domain.com/ebooks/BHG_I_online/mobile/index.html#p=303 |access-date=25 July 2021}}</ref><ref name="RabbiLetterNYT">{{cite news |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/19/nyregion/l-a-rabbi-s-view-of-a-bark-mitzvah-216160.html |title= A Rabbi's View Of a 'Bark Mitzvah' |author=Rabbi Charles A. Kroloff |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=January 19, 1997}}</ref> Bark mitzvahs are sometimes held as an adjunct to the festival of [[Purim]].<ref name="SantaMonicaNationalGeog">{{cite news |url= http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/10/061006-pet-church.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20061018000532/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/10/061006-pet-church.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= October 18, 2006 |title= Pets Gaining Recognition in Places of Worship |author= Maryann Mott |work= [[National Geographic Society|National Geographic News]] |date= October 6, 2006}}</ref>