History
On July 10th, 1977 the first Bark Mitzvah took place in West Orange New Jersey. Marvin and Thebe Drazin held a Bark Mitzvah for their dog Schnoppsie-Lewis Drazin in their backyard. The pictures of the ceremony are posted online in a Google+ album.
In 1997, the first widely recorded Bark Mitzvah was celebrated, receiving scrutiny and disapproval from several rabbis. One rabbi expressed his distaste for Bark Mitzvahs in a letter to the editor of The New York Times, describing the celebration as "nothing less than a desecration of a cherished Jewish tradition" and claiming that Bark Mitzvahs "degrade some of the central principles of Jewish life".
Although the idea of the Bark Mitzvah is frowned upon by some, the idea spread throughout the United States, and the celebrations have continued to occur. The ceremonies became increasingly popular on the East and West Coasts in the early 2000s. As a result, specialty pet stores and dog bakeries now offer special Bark Mitzvah party packages, party favors, and gifts.
Read more about this topic: Bark Mitzvah
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“The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
“Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth. It is astonishing how few facts of importance are added in a century to the natural history of any animal. The natural history of man himself is still being gradually written.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)