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On October 23rd, Areyvut co-sponsored a program "Putting the Mitzvah Back in Bar/Bat Mitzvah " for pre- Bnai Mitzvah and their parents with The Jewish Community Center in Manhattan.
The program featured Cyrus Abbe, a parent who spoke about working with his children to incorporate chesed into their celebration. He described how his children brought toys to Israel and distributed them at a hospital and then traveled to Ethiopia to teach in the Jewish community as well as ways they regularly incorporate these values within their lives. Cyrus advocated for students to utilize the opportunity of giving a speech or Dvar Torah to address an issue they feel passionate about, research it and present it to the community or those gathered to celebrate with them.
Judith Turner, the Director of Family and Youth Volunteer Services at Dorot, spoke about doing programs through Dorot that relate to and meet the needs of the elderly community in New York. She mentioned that working with Dorot gives one the opportunity to better understand the lives and issues of the elderly. While Dorot has a variety of programs for Bnai Mitzvah - holiday package delivery, making birthday cards for seniors and calling or visiting seniors- Judith mentioned that students have the ability to develop their own personalized project to help the elderly.
Dava Yanoff, the co-sponsor of the event and Director of Tween Programs at The Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, spoke about the wide array of programs relating to social action for pre- Bnai Mitzvah at the JCC. She offered to serve as a resource for any student or family to help develop additional programs at the JCC in these areas as well as to help in deciding on a mitzvah project for them to incorporate into their celebration.
Daniel Rothner, the Founder and director of Areyvut, spoke about personalizing your chesed and encouraged the participants to design and implement a project suited to their own interests, personalities and needs. He offered suggestions of issues to consider in planning the project, ways to make the actual celebration or party a chesed activity and addressed how to continue their involvement after their special day.
The goal of the program was to help pre- bnai mitzvah and their families become more aware of and sensitive to the needs of others and encourage them to continue integrating chesed, tzedakah and tikkun olam into their celebrations and everyday lives. The program enabled parents and students to hear from a group of experts about meaningful ideas of how to incorporate important mitzvot as a significant step in becoming a Jewish adult, mensch and leader. Following the program, Areyvut and the JCC provided the participants with a list of resources- agencies, books and sites- to further help them address these areas.
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