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Bar Mitzvah Disco, the between-hard-covers celebration of Jewish coming-of-age campiness that overtook America's affluent suburbs in, according to the book, mostly the 1970s and 1980s, hit bookstores last week. While we continue to find the book vaguely disconcerting when it's used to sell hipster t-shirts to the goyim, we also find it charmingly amusing when it's sitting on our Semitic coffee table. And so we spent a good chunk of Sunday afternoon poring over it, during which we learned several things.

First, that it's remarkable how many of these bar mitzvah pictures like precisely like our own, from the hey-look-at-my-sign-in-board pose to the mouth-agape mom being lifted in a chair to the "hands up, baby, hands up" crowd, complete with giveaway necklaces and sunglasses. Second, that while there are several people included in the book who we know as adults, there is only one who we knew at the time of her bat mitzvah, which proves that Essex County, New Jersey, is woefully underrepresented. Third, that MTV's pre-Seth Cohen geek-chic king, Gideon Yago, shared our Torah portion, though a year or two later. And, finally, fourth, and most important: That we're incredibly pleased the pictures of our bar mitzvah remain secure in mom and dad's den in New Jersey.

Because unlike agent-to-the-blogstars Kate Lee, we don't think we could handle the world seeing pictures (like above) of our 13-year-old self.

(In fairness to no-longer-in-an-awkward-stage Kate, a then-and-now montage awaits after the jump.)

Bar Mitzvah Disco [Official site]

This image was lost some time after publication.