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Dear
Friend and Supporter,
SO who wants to hear what I sound
like? We’ve been busy updating our bat mitzvah webpages, including some videos
of me, have you seen them?
Be
sure to check out my brand new step-by-step instructional video on creating
your own FREE customized website for your mitzvah project: Click here!
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Sheena Levi
Director of Outreach sheena@levlalev.com |
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Organize a Pre-Pesach
Food Drive!
Passover is fast approaching,
starting this year on April 6th!
Many of you and your friends are
probably starting to go through your cupboards to get rid of your Chametz. Rather
than saving cans and boxed food, consider using this as an opportunity to organize
and run a food drive at your school or synagogue to collect and donate food to
a local shelter or food bank!
Click to find
one near you.
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- Hannah Bein, CT
on her Bat Mitzvah this month!
Thanks for supporting the music & arts program at the Orphanage!
- Callie Kramsky,
NJ on her Bat Mitzvah this month!
Thanks for supporting the extra-curricular programs at the Orphanage!
- Zoe Friedman,
Toronto on her Bat Mitzvah this month!
Thanks for supporting the Bat Mitzvah program at the Orphanage!
- Chana Gelman,
Toronto on her Bat Mitzvah this month!
Thanks for supporting the Bat Mitzvah program at the Orphanage!
- Sarina
Hilowitz, GA on her mitzvah project fundraiser event this month! Sarina is hosting a pre-Pesach wine & cheese party to raise
funds to twin her May Bat Mitzvah with an Orphan in Israel!
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I recently saw a video online cited
as the “BEST Bar Mitzvah Speech” in
which the young man voices his struggle with his belief in G-d.
 Judaism encourages the question. We
are a religion in which the same text is read, interpreted, and studied over
and over again; each time the student seeking to understand its many different
meanings and relate it to where they are in their lives at that point.
The young man finds his answer in
that one must lead a good life, to be good to others and “to act as G-d would
want us to…if there was a G-d.” To him,
religion represents being moral, but perhaps his next question should be: who
decided what is right and what is wrong in the first place?
Your Bat
Mitzvah journey is a great opportunity, as you continue to grow into your
Judaism, to ask these hard questions, and
learn how to connect to your faith today, as generations of Jews before you
have done for thousands of years.
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Need help brainstorming Mitzvah Project ideas? Check out our NEW Mitzvah Project archive and see what Lev
LaLev Bat Mitzvah girls have done in the past: support.levlalev.com/MitzvahProjectArchives
I hope we can
include yours there soon as well!
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Purim Sameach! This year the holiday kicks off with the customary reading of
Megillat (the Book of) Esther on Wednesday night March 7th then
again on the 8th.
 So who was Esther? Along with Ruth,
Esther is one of the only two women in the ancient Jewish writings to have a
book written in her name. Hadassah, Esther's Jewish name, comes from the word for 'myrtle', a
tree whose leaves only release their fragrance when they are crushed. Esther's
true heroism appeared when she and her people were in terrible danger.
As Jewish orphan, Hadassah, was raised by her
cousin Mordechai. She later assumed the name Esther, which means
'hidden'. When the King
of Persia, Achasvarous sent his wife Vashti away for disobeying him, he chose
Esther to be his new wife. Esther kept her Jewish identity hidden and became
the new queen of Persia.
When Haman, the King's prime minister, ordered that
all Jews be murdered on the 13th day of the Hebrew month of Adar; Esther risked
her life by going to the King, without him requesting her presence first, and
asking him to stop Haman's plan. Thus, the Jews were saved and Mordechai declared
the 14th and 15th days of Adar as days of rejoicing, as the feast of Purim.
How do you relate to Esther’s heroism in your
own life and in this month of Adar?
For a little fun, check out Lev LaLev’s special
Purim video (recorded and edited by yours truly) see if you can find me in the
video:
http://youtu.be/9UKM7wm9ooY
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