B’nai Mitzvah
B’nai Mitzvah Project
Your mitzvah project is a key piece of becoming a bar/bat mitzvah, a son or daughter of the commandments. This process prepares you to take your place in the adult Jewish community, and full participation in the Jewish community involves an increased focus on tikkun olam, repairing the world.
Your mitzvah project is a key piece of becoming a bar/bat mitzvah, a son or daughter of the commandments. This process prepares you to take your place in the adult Jewish community, and full participation in the Jewish community involves an increased focus on tikkun olam, repairing the world.
When deciding upon your mitzvah project, please take the following steps:
1. Ask yourself: What is your passion?
Perhaps you love soccer, or animals. When you care about something, you are willing to put a little extra time and energy into that thing. Find your passion and then brainstorm ways you can work your passion into your mitzvah project.
2. Check out the options
There are hundreds of awesome organizations out there that would benefit from your help. TAS has three social action partners to get you started:
Each of these organizations have volunteer opportunities available, and their websites include lists of ways you can best help them help others. Additionally, check out the “Torah in Action” section of your parasha book, which connects social action ideas to the themes of your torah portion.
3. Be creative
You can ask people to donate money to an organization any time, and there will be many opportunities for you to run a sock drive at your school. Try to think out of the box for your mitzvah project. As an example, check out Mitzvah Chai, a website TAS bar mitzvah alum Sam Fischbach created. Add some information about your own project!
4. Take action
Try to find a mitzvah project that involves doing something; if you are interested in raising money for an important cause, consider participating in a fundraising event (such as a danceathon, awareness walk, or other athletic challenge) that allows you to raise money through movement.
5. Consider teaming up
The more the merrier! If you find that you are interested in working on a project that your friends are also interested in, why not put your heads and hands together and affect change on a multi-family level!
Check out these great resources for more information:
a) How to choose a Mitzvah Project
b) How to “Do a Mitzvah Project Right”
c) An article about teen philanthropist Alexandra Kukoff, who started off with an assignment to put together a b’nai mitzvah project, and came out of the experience an author and teen philanthropist!
d) Areyvut – a website that provides many awesome b’nai mitzvah project resources like:
- a calendar that will send “a kindness a day” to your email inbox
- a that gives b’nai mitzvah students a platform to share their projects online.
B’nai Mitzvah Resources
Learn more about B’nai mitzvah at TAS by exploring the links below:
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