Mitzvah Project Ideas

Description of Organization:

A Package from Home provides care packages for Chayelim Bodedim (soldiers with no family in Israel) and other combat soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces. These packages strengthen the spirit and resolve of Israeli soldiers, and show appreciation and thanks for protecting Israel. These packages are filled with items such as fleece jackets, long underwear, socks, gloves, hats, t-shirts, toiletries, and assorted snack foods, along with letters of appreciation from children and adults from around the world. There are many ways to participate in A Package from Home's project.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:

A Package from Home offers the opportunity for Bnai Mitzvah to perform a mitzvah by helping the soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). There are many ways to be involved in A Package from Home's project. First, by adopting an army unit of Chayelim Bodedim (soldiers with no family in Israel), each Chayal Boded will receive a care package filled with such as items as a t-shirt, anti fungal socks, fleece jackets, long underwear, hat, gloves, assorted snacks, toiletries and a letter of appreciation written by adults and children from around the world. A Bnai Mitzvah may include a letter with their invitation telling their guests about their project and/or ask guests to donate directly to A Package from Home, or the Bnai Mitzvah can decide to personally adopt an army unit. In addition writing letters to be included in the packages, collecting supplies for the soldiers and other ideas can be part of their chesed project.

Description of Organization:

We promote English Literacy in Israel, primarily in the Jerusalem area. We have after school classes to teach, teacher training seminars to train teachers in our methodology, we sponsor a Read-a-thon, Writing Contest and build libraries. We also run Breaking Through, an individualized program that we bring to schools, to help dyslexic kids learn to read English. We provide scholarships for families of a low socioeconomic level. We do all this because without a passing grade in the all important English Matriculation Exams set by the government children do not get their High School Diploma. Currently only about 45% of all Israeli students graduate High School.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:

Books can be collected for our libraries - the drawback is that they also must find a way to get them here. This is a good project if the family is coming to celebrate in Israel, and everyone can bring a bag of books. School supplies can be collected for us. Money can be raised to sponsor any of our projects. In each case, we can break down each project into parts that guests can buy in addition or in lieu of gifts for the Bar or Bat Mitzvah child. For example if we wanted to build a library we could list books, plastic to cover, shelving, etc.. as gift opportunities. Pictures can be sent to be used as centerpieces or party favors. Recently a Bat Mitzvah girl just built us a beautiful garden for the grounds around us. Not only that, but enough was raised to also start an environmental program that the children will learn about - all in English!

Description of Organization:
Action for Post-Soviet Jewry assists Jewish communities in the former Soviet Union, mainly in eastern Ukraine, Belarus and Kishinev, Moldova. Its main project is called Adopt-a-Bubbe. We are helping over 1,500 pensioners with food, medicine, clothing, eyeglasses, hearing aids, and occasionally coal for the winter, refurbishing a burned-out apartment and more. Action for post soviet Jewry also provides aid for students at Jewish Day Schools and Jewish orphanages. Usually this is medicine, clothing and kosher vitamins. Action for Post-Soviet Jewry supports a free medical clinic in Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkov, Ukraine.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:
Action for Post-Soviet Jewry has a Bar/Bat Mitzvah "twinning" program which links youngsters in America with their counterpart in Ukraine, usually a Jewish Day School student. The organization encourages the youngsters to write to one another and exchange pictures and items of interest about their families, schools and hobbies. This is an effort to link Jewish young people across the world, and to appreciate the many similarities and differences in the way each lives. In several communities, the children come from very poor families. Therefore, they are trying to collect children's clothing (especially warm jackets, hats and sweaters) and shoes. Several Jewish Day Schools have asked us to provide shoes, which are expensive and which often wear out and are outgrown by youngsters. If participants can get them to PSJ's office, they can send them in directly to the schools where they are most needed. Used clothing or shoes must be in very good condition. Youngsters who live near the APSJ office are welcome to volunteer to pack medicine and clothing for shipment.

Description of Organization:
The African Refugee Development Center (ARDC) is a non-profit organization founded in 2004 by refugees and Israeli citizens to assist, support and empower refugees and asylum seekers in Israel that have come fleeing genocide and armed civil conflict in their home countries. The ARDC seeks to ensure access to basic social services, and to facilitate refugee and asylum seeker integration, self-sufficiency and ownership in matters affecting their lives. The ARDC advocates for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers and for a humane and fair Israeli asylum policy, It divides its work between individual counseling, humanitarian aid, education, community development, awareness raising and policy initiatives.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:
Donations made from fundraisers are put to great use by the organization. Additionally we have the opportunity to schedule site visits and volunteer opportunities with the Bnai Mitzvah.

Description of Organization:

During the Rwandan genocide in 1994 nearly one million people were murdered in 100 days. The catastrophic consequences continue to be felt today where, despite tremendous efforts at rebuilding, 60% of the population still live below the poverty line.  One of the most devastating aftermaths is the approximately 2.8 million orphans and vulnerable children who reside in Rwanda today, many of whom have lost their parents, family members, communities, and homes. With this unfathomable trauma comes the loss of hope for a viable future; for their country and for themselves.

ASYV will be a place where these traumatized youth can "dry their tears" (Agahozo) and "live in peace" (Shalom). Within this environment, the "rhythm of life" will be restored: a child rises from his/her bed in the morning, eats breakfast with siblings and "parents,"walks to school and back home in the afternoon. The result is healthy adults who are not only able to care for themselves and their families, but who are committed to making their community and the world a better place. ASYV will be an opportunity for Americans, Israelis and Rwandans to work together to establish a tangible and long-term response to Rwanda’s critical orphan problem. A team of Ethiopian-Israelis are serving as mentors and role models for the staff and students. Many are graduates of Yemin Orde, a village founded in 1953 in Israel to care for orphans of the Holocaust. The first group of students arrived at their new home in the Village in December of 2008 and began their first academic year in January of 2009. 

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:

ASYV has created a package for Bnai Mitzvah students to further introduce them to this project, share stories of the teens living at the Village and present ideas for connecting a Bnai Nitzvah project to the inspiring mission of the Village. Please contact ASYV to customize your own involvement with ASYV. They can also share with you some of the ways other Bnai Mitzvah students have helped ASYV through their personal projects.

Description of Organization:
The AIDS Resource Foundation for Children offers comprehensive services to families affected by HIV/AIDS living in Newark, NJ. We provide opportunities such as housing, medical care, mental health services, and an after-school program.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:

Description of Organization:
Aleh is a nonprofit organization that provides medical care and rehabilitation to hundreds of severely disabled children, teenagers and young adults in Israel. Founded in 1982 by a small group of dedicated parents, today Aleh provides full residential services to over 600 severely disabled children and young adults, and outpatient services for 10,000 people with milder disabilities. Aleh's four facilities are located in Jerusalem, Bnei Brak, Gedera and the Negev.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:

Description of Organization:
Am Echad, a nonprofit, charitable 501(c)(3) organization, was established in the year 2000 to provide financial and moral support directly to destitute elderly and disabled Jews in the former Soviet Union. They help the most lonely, the most desperate, those with no relatives, and those who are not reached by the efforts of the mainstream Jewish organizations. Many of these Jews do not have any money for food and medicine, and do not have a family to support them. Am Echad provides help directly, in some cases literally, by saving them from starvation or imminent death due to catastrophic illnesses. Their health can be improved, and their physical suffering can be alleviated with medicine. Am Echad makes it possible. A grass roots, all-volunteer organization, Am Echad has limited resources and relies solely on donations. The majority of its efforts go to finding the neediest individuals to whom they can provide direct assistance. Sadly, that number grows daily. Am Echad already knows many of them, but they cannot start helping these people until more funds become available. All contributions received by Am Echad are used immediately to improve the lives of these all but forgotten people.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:

Description of Organization:
The American Cancer Society is the nationwide community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy, and service.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:

Description of Organization:
Please consider doing a Mitzvah Project by helping Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, Israel. It is known as "the Hospital with a Heart" for its century-long reputation for treating patients with special kindness and care. We treat over 200,000 people a year and have treated over 40% of those injured in terrorist attacks. Almost 12,000 babies are born each year at the hospital. Shaare Zedek does not receive any government funding for new equipment or to update its facilities. The Hospital is supported through the generosity of donors throughout the United States and around the world.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:

Suggested Projects include a Walkathon, Basketball Shoot, Bowl-a-Thon, or Bake Sale to benefit Shaare Zedek. A plaque will be displayed at the hospital and a special dedication ceremony will be made in your honor and put on our website.

If you are visiting Israel:

- Take a private tour of the hospital

- Visit the children

- See a medical clown

- Help purchase a piece of equipment for the Children's Hospital

Description of Organization:
ALYN Hospital, located in Jerusalem, Israel, is one of the world's leading specialists in the active and intensive rehabilitation of children who have physical challenges and disabilities as a result of congenital muscular, neuromuscular and skeletal disorders, invasive cancer surgery, fires, accidents and terrorist attacks. American Friends of ALYN Hospital is the exclusive awareness raising and fundraising organization in the United States for ALYN Hospital. ALYN treats children from birth to young adulthood, regardless of religion or ethnic origin and is the only facility of its kind in Israel. Absolutely everything needed to rehabilitate a child is under one roof at ALYN and a talented staff combines expertise with love and state-of-the-art technology to help each patient reach his or her highest possible level of mobility and independence. The Rehabilitation Center is a nonprofit that receives no government funding and its extraordinary care is only partially reimbursed from health insurance. Donations are desperately needed to bridge the gap between insurance and the true cost of care as well as to fund research, replacement equipment and renovations.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:

Description of Organization:
Beit Issie Shapiro, established in 1981 in Ra'anana, Israel, assists people with a wide range of disabilities, including mental retardation, autism, cerebral palsy, rare developmental syndromes and other functional disorders. Beit Issie Shapiro's mission is to promote the rights and quality of life of people with special needs and their families. Their experienced and dedicated staff are committed to providing a wide range of high quality therapeutic and support services within a responsible and caring community.

Bnai Mitzvah Projects or Volunteer Opportunities offered by the organization for children ages 11 - 13:

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