My favorite part about being Jewish is that I get to stand out, and be different than everyone else. I also enjoy learning about the history of Judaism and celebrating the Jewish holidays. My favorite holiday is Hanukkah because I enjoy lighting the candles each night and I love eating latkes. For me, becoming a Bat Mitzvah means that I am growing up and I can soon start to make my own decisions. I am also becoming more independent and I have more responsibilities.

For my mitzvah project, we collected school supplies for Sterling Elementary. I chose this as my mitzvah project because I know everybody is going back to school around this time, and that most people get to go shopping for new school supplies for the upcoming year. But there are many kids who don’t get that privilege. I wanted to make some students happy by giving nice, new school supplies so they could be successful throughout the year. Doing this taught me to be grateful for everything that I have because many people overlook how lucky they are and I am going to start thinking about that in my everyday life.

Mazel Tov to Sam on becoming a Bar Mitzvah. I loved having my twin brother as my partner throughout this process. After my Bat Mitzvah, I want to help prepare others to do just what I did today, because I know I could not have done this without all of the tutors who helped me. I will continue to learn about Judaism in Sheva. I will also continue to go to Camp Coleman, where I can learn more about my religion, while having lots of fun with my friends.

Sarah and Sam are the children of Robert and Naomi. Send notes of congratulations.