I love being Jewish because of all the holidays we celebrate.  Chanukah is my favorite because I love singing the blessings when we light candles, eating latkes and playing dreidel with my brother.  Becoming a Bat Mitzvah is important to me because I am giving back to God all of the things he has given me.  As I’ve studied for this day I’ve learned that I am a lot better at Hebrew than I thought I was because it’s always been hard for me.  I also discovered that I know a lot more prayers than I thought I did.  Finding this out made me super happy because it made me feel more confident about being able to prepare more easily.

For my Mitzvah project I volunteered at the Sunrise assisted living center.  I chose this because not all of the older people get visitors so I wanted to make their days happier.  We played Othello, went on walks and planted some flowers.  I really liked doing this because they had a really good time and they liked the vibrant colored flowers that I brought with me.  Now that I am becoming a Bat Mitzvah I plan to continue coming to Temple on Friday nights and Saturday mornings as much as I can.  I’m going to bring some of my friends because they are interested in learning about Judaism and services are a lot of fun.

Madison DeSantis is the daughter of Adam and Susan Desantis.  She is the sister of Matthew DeSantis, the stepsister of Josh Miller, Brady Miller, Chris Miller and Chelsea Brown and the stepdaughter of Heather DeSantis.  She is the granddaughter of Ruth Katz of Long Island NY and Herb and Bonnie Katz of Scarsdale NY.  Send notes of mazel tov.