Top 5 TV Bar Mitzvah Moments, Inspired By Hulu’s ‘Difficult People’
Image by Screenshot
This week, Hulu’s Difficult People starred Marilyn (the firebrand mother figure, played by Andrea Martin), throwing herself a Bat Mitzvah.
Which we found pretty inspiring.
In honor of this momentous occasion, we decided it’s time to do a wrap-up of the five best bar mitzvah moments on TV. Because, yes, in the goldeneh medinah, anything is possible – even your first time wearing a tallis gets on national television.
Image by Screenshot
“Ron the Man” (2003) Kim Possible
In this first season episode of the Disney Channel animated classic Kim Possible, Ron Stoppable (Kim’s sidekick/best friend/eventual boyfriend) has an existential crisis after he learns that his rabbi never signed his Bar Mitzvah certificate. After some hijinks involving a ring that gives Ron obscenely large muscles, Ron realizes, with help from Rabbi Katz, that you don’t need to be large and/or muscular to be a “real man.”
“Sister” (2014) New Girl
In this season three episode, proud Long Island Jew Schmidt and roommate/best friend/subpar wingman Nick crash a local Bar Mitzvah in order to win the heart of Rachel, an attractive He-brew school teacher. Unfortunately, Schmidt’s latest crush is the daughter of the rabbi, who isn’t a fan of Schmidt. While Nick and Schmidt do end up disrupting the proceedings in classic sitcom fashion, Schmidt never does get that date with Rachel.
“Gordo’s Bar Mitzvah” (2002) The Lizzie McGuire Show
Once again, Disney Channel comes in clutch with characters celebrating their journeys to Jewish adulthood. Lizzie’s friend Gordo begins questioning his manliness after his heartthrob-ier class-mate Ethan gets a dirtbike. His parents had originally given him the choice of whether to have a bar mitzvah ceremony, and after flirting with getting a tattoo, driving a car, and trying to shave (prematurely), our nerdy Gordo decides he’s going to become an adult by honoring his heritage and reading from the Torah.
“Today I Am a Clown” (2003) The Simpsons
Krusty the Clown has a less-than-traditional bar mitzvah ceremony in this episode from the fif-teenth season of The Simpsons. Notably, “Today I Am a Clown” centers on a adult Jew deciding to become bar mitzvah. After discovering that he can’t get a star on Springfield’s Jewish walk of fame because he never celebrated his bar mitzvah, Krusty (with the help of Lisa and Bart) reaches out to his father, Rabbi Krustofsky, to help him complete this rite, which ultimately ends up including Mr. T.
“Will Scarsdale Like Josh’s Shayna Punim?” (2017) Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Rachel Bloom’s musical television show is the perfect opportunity to incorporate some classic klezmer at a Bar Mitzvah ceremony. Patti LuPone guest stars as Rebecca (Bloom)’s childhood rabbi, who leads the Bar Mitzvah guests in a rousing original song, “Remember That We Suf-fered,” to make sure that no one is having too much fun.
Deborah Krieger is a curatorial assistant and freelance arts and culture writer. She has written for The Awl, Bust Magazine, PopMatters, Paste Magazine, Whitehot Magazine, and blogs at http://www.i-on-the-arts.com/.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Trump administration restores student visas, but impact on pro-Palestinian protesters is unclear
-
Fast Forward Deborah Lipstadt says Trump’s campus antisemitism crackdown has ‘gone way too far’
-
Fast Forward 5 Jewish senators accuse Trump of using antisemitism as ‘guise’ to attack universities
-
Fast Forward Jewish Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky reportedly to retire after 26 years in office
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.