It’s great for me to experience, what it feels like to go through such a unique process of preparing for my Bar Mitzvah. I am discovering valuable lessons that relate to Judaism. Sheva has added more meaning to my Jewish life. By expanding my mind through Sheva and other Jewish events, I have developed new and important ways to value things I learned earlier in my Jewish education. Celebrating Shabbat is an enjoyable way to practice Jewish traditions and celebrate with family and friends. A lot of Judaism is about how you treat others. I can pass that on to anyone through how I act. This process has highlighted how my Jewish life is special and it makes me special.

My Mitzvah Project was to be a coach for a basketball camp. This basketball camp was run through a program called the Yes I Can Play Foundation. This program is mainly for underprivileged kids who love basketball and want a chance to get to play. Since basketball is my favorite sport, it was a great way to have fun while helping others. It was also beneficial because it was a great way to learn how to get comfortable with something that I had never done, which is to become a coach. All of the coaches were older than me so fitting in with them while helping kids was tough. However, after I got a good feel for how it would work, I felt more comfortable and really had fun helping. I fulfilled the mitzvah of removing a stumbling from before the blind.

Jack is the son of Stacey Marshall and Dan Feldstein, and the sibling of Katie (age 15). He is the grandson of: Linda and Barry Marshall, of Charlotte, North Carolina, and Judy and Ed Feldstein, of Atlanta, Georgia.