My favorite things about being Jewish are the holidays, food and the culture. I love celebrating the holidays because it is a happy time of year to get together with friends and family. I also enjoy the food! My favorite is matzo ball soup and I could eat it for all of my meals! It is fun for me to learn about new cultures of other places, but even more important to learn more about Judaism.
To me, becoming a Bat Mitzvah means I am more independent. When you are younger your parents do a lot for you but becoming a Bat Mitzvah means taking a large step towards adulthood. It also means you can continue more advanced Jewish education, and experience more outside your comfort zone.
Sheva and my preparation for my Bat Mitzvah has taught me a lot about myself as a Jewish person. Through Sheva I have learned about different ways I portray myself. I learned that there are different “faces” of each person. This means that what you see on the outside may not be the same person on the inside. We learned about how to be confident about our identity and being Jewish.
One of my mitzvah projects was bringing food to the homeless. I decorated, and packed food bags for people staying at Room at the Inn and cleaned up after their stay. I chose this because I think it is important that everyone on this Earth should have a home. It is unfair to me that we are destroying trees to build houses, but there are too many houses and not enough people in them. I understand the struggle of the people I visited went through, and it is sad to think that some people have to go through this. I want to continue doing things like this and giving people hope for a better future. I also had a wonderful time spending Shabbat with the Jewish seniors at Sunrise Assisted Living.
I would like to continue my Jewish education. I plan on going to Hebrew High next year, being a madricha, and maybe soon I’ll get to travel to Israel.
Mia is the daughter of Eric and Tracey Lederer. She is the sister of Emily Lederer. She is the grandaughter of Dale Lederer of Charlotte, Pam Murtland of Beech Mountain, NC and Martin Lederer of San Diego, CA. Send notes of mazal tov.
