Izzy – whose mom Mimi Bromberg refers to her as both “very bright” and as “a diva” (in the most loving way) – had some very cool experiences by the time she turned 13 and became a Bark Mitzvah.
Izzy’s parents, who had both grown up with dogs, together had a West Highland Terrier and two Labrador Retrievers before they got Izzy. They loved having labs and neither of them were allergic, but once they had grandkids they decided to get a Portuguese Water Dog – then they could be sure that nobody in the family would be allergic to their pup. So, in 2009, they found a highly respected breeder of Porties not far from where they lived, and when a mother Portie gave birth to a litter of 13, they went to see the puppies.
As Mimi describes it: “One of the puppies had an exact replica of Chai [the Hebrew word for ‘life’] on her back. I said to the breeder: ‘I’m taking that one!’”
Coincidentally, Barak Obama was President at the time, and his family had just gotten their first dog, a Portuguese Water Dog named Bo. Americans were obsessed with Porties and wanted to know everything about them. Izzy’s breeder got a call from the American Kennel Club that the producers of “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” wanted to have some Porties on the show. So Izzy, along with her dog mom and some of her siblings, travelled to New York and appeared on TV with Jimmy Fallon – giving Americans the chance to indulge their Portie obsession.
As she grew, it turned out that Izzy wasn’t just the same kind of dog as Bo Obama, but she was his doppelganger. Again, Izzy’s breeder got a call from the American Kennel Club. This time they were calling on behalf of Vanity Fair. The magazine was doing a feature on Bo Obama with celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz. There was just one problem: Bo wasn’t always an ideal subject for photoshoots. They wanted to know if Izzy would come to the photoshoot as a backup. That way, if Bo wasn’t cooperating, Leibovitz could take pictures of Izzy – the photos would appear in Vanity Fair and be labeled as pictures of Bo Obama. In the end, Bo did cooperate for Leibovitz’s photo shoot, and the pictures in Vanity Fair were actually ones of Bo. But Izzy spent the day with Leibovitz and Bo. Another brush with fame for the young Portie.
Izzy’s celebrity days may be long gone, but much more importantly, in the subsequent years she’s continued to bring tremendous joy to her human parents, their children and grandchildren. Each year on her birthday, Izzy’s human mom Mimi makes sure to take a special picture of Izzy. And so, when she turned 13 in March 2022 Mimi put a pink hat and bandana on Izzy in celebration of her “Bark Mitzvah” birthday. As the traditional Jewish saying goes: “May Izzy live to 120” [the age to which Moses lived] – at least in dog years.
