While one becomes a Jewish adult simply by turning 13, one of the many ways in which we mark this transition from childhood to the age of Mitzvah is to begin to contribute to the community and the world in a more robust way. Your child’s mitzvah project is one of the most meaningful things they can do and is the beginning of a commitment to Tikkun Olam. Projects can range from raising or donating monies, volunteering on-site, and/or organizing drives to benefit an organization or cause.
With so many choices it is often hard to find the right mitzvah project. Try to start the process by asking your child these questions:
What do you really like to do?
What are you really good at doing?
What bothers you about the world so much that you really want to change it?
Hopefully, these questions will help narrow down the myriad of options. Once a direction can be determined it is time to do research. Learn about organizations that work in that arena. Learn about effective and achievable ways to provide assistance and support programs that can make a difference.
Finally, let your child make it their own. The mitzvah project allows your child to shine and highlight what is important to them.
Let them be the force that they are, taking the helm and showcasing their achievements.
Below are some mitzvah projects to Inspire:
Alex’s Lemonade Stand
The mission of Alex’s Lemonade Stand is to change the lives of children with cancer through funding impactful research, raising awareness, supporting families, and empowering everyone to help cure childhood cancer. Set up your own lemonade stand to raise money for childhood cancers.
Alexslemonade.org
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC)
The JDC mitzvah project gives teens the power to make a global difference. JDC is saving Jewish lives, building Jewish community, and living Jewish values.
jdc.org
ETTA
ETTA’s mitzvah project allows students to work directly with teens and adults with special needs. Through teen events and group activities, your child can provide needed support in our community.
etta.org
Food on Foot
Food on Foot provides healthy meals, clothing, and essential resources to unhoused and low-income residents in Los Angeles who are in need. Get involved by volunteering at an event, distributing food, or donating gently used clothing to help meet the critical needs of our city’s less fortunate.
foodonfoot.org
Friends of the Israel Defense Forces
Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) is dedicated to the mission of providing and supporting social, educational, cultural and recreational programs and facilities for the young men and women soldiers of Israel.
Fidf.org
Friendship Circle Los Angeles
The Friendship Circle’s MVP program (Mitzvah Volunteer Program) is a 4-week orientation course that trains volunteers on how to interact with children who have special needs. The program involves interactive activities that offer insights into different disabilities, guidance on appropriate volunteer conduct, and the significance of giving back to the community. Volunteers are also made aware of the impact they can make on others. After completing the four sessions, they will have the opportunity to volunteer at the facility.
fcla.org
HIAS
Founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, today HIAS works around the world to protect and assist refugees of all faiths and ethnicities who have been forced to flee their homelands. B’nai mitzvah projects include assisting with advocacy, distributing petitions, letter-writing campaigns, volunteering with refugee children living in the area, holding a collection drive for needed goods, and more.
hias.org
Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind
The Israel Guide Dog Center offers students an opportunity to raise awareness and sponsor puppies to help the needs of Israel’s visually impaired. Through the mitzvah program students will learn about the needs of people who are visually impaired and the obstacles they must overcome.
Israelguidedog.org
Jewish National Fund
Jewish National Fund aims to secure a prosperous and secure future for the people and the land of Israel. They achieve this by planting trees, constructing houses and parks, finding water solutions, purchasing fire trucks, and enhancing the lives of individuals with special needs. JNF offers various mitzvah project opportunities.
Jnf.org
Lev LaLev
Twin your bat mitzvah with an orphan bat mitzvah girl in Israel. Girls from all over the world work with the girls at LevLaLev to help support them for their celebration. From sponsoring an art class, trip, or even a gala, your support for others will be a true mitzvah.
levlalev.com
Meir Panim
Established to help alleviate and diminish the harmful effects of poverty on thousands of men, women, and children across Israel. Project Connect is a great opportunity to connect with a boy or girl in Israel and perhaps help them celebrate their own b’nai mitzvah.
meirpanim.org
Mountain Trust
Attend a trail or river cleanup in your backyard. Dedicated to restoring the degraded, damaged, or destroyed habitats in the Santa Monica Mountains, the Mountain Trust needs your help to protect our environment.
mountaintrust.org
NA’AMAT
NA’AMAT’s Tech 4 Teens mitzvah project helps teenagers in Israel. The program is specifically designed to provide students with the technology essentials such as computers, printers, software, and other technological resources that are often taken for granted.
naamat.org
Project Chicken Soup
Provide nechama (comfort) to those in need. Volunteers are needed weekly to provide kosher meals to people in the Los Angeles area who are living with HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other serious illnesses.
projectchickensoup.org
Remember Us Foundation
Get matched with a child who perished in the Holocaust and learn about ways to remember and honor that child. The mitzvah program includes training and weekly Zoom meetings. remember-us.org
Shoes for the Homeless Inc. Shoes for the Homeless is looking for youth ambassadors who want to help the homeless and are willing to make a commitment. Help organize a shoe collection drive and learn leadership skills in the process.
shoesforthehomeless.net
The Gentle Barn
Rescuing animals since 1999, the Gentle Barn located in Santa Clarita is focused on reconnecting animals and people. Come for a cow hug, or just to interact with the many animals saved by the Gentle Barn. The animals need your help and they may help you in return.
gentlebarn.org
TreePeople
Now in its 50th year, TreePeople is the biggest environmental movement in Southern California. You can volunteer and discover how to make a difference as a force for change, one tree, one street, and one community at a time.
treepeople.org