Bar and Bat Mitzvah Projects
Teach Giving Back,
Even After the Ceremony
MARISSA STERN | JE STAFF
T HE COUNTLESS HOURS
spent learning and prac-
ticing your Torah portion.

The late-night anxieties parents experience as
they double check they’ve called the caterer and
decorators for last-minute changes.

The payoff of becoming a Bar or Bat Mitz-
vah in front of your closest friends and fam-
ily — before they chuck candy at you.

Preparing for a Bar or Bat Mitzvah
isn’t easy, but once you’re off the bi-
mah and riding the sugar high of
dozens of Shirley Temples, it all
comes together.

But there is one other ele-
ment of the important event that
shouldn’t be overlooked: a Bar or
Bat Mitzvah project.

These teens found unique ways
to complete their projects by working
with organizations that were meaningful to them
and, importantly, let them play with some puppies.

Justin Oser has always loved animals, so volunteering with
Dog Town Rescue in Montgomery County was a natural fit for
his Bar Mitzvah project.

Justin became a Bar Mitzvah in June 2017 and was able to
present the organization with a $500 check after he — in addi-
tion to playing with the puppies — sold lip balm to family and
friends. He created a website for the product and volunteered his
time to the animals.

“I always loved working with animals, so I wanted to help
them,” the Pennbrook Middle School seventh-grader said. “I
walked them, fed them, played with them — kind of whatever
they needed.”
His mother, Debbie Oser, volunteered with him, as he was
under 12 years old at the time.

“I saw that he was just very loving and caring toward [the
animals]. He knows dogs at rescues or at certain pet stores, that
they’re waiting to be adopted and are always kept back behind
closed doors, or in a cage or behind the glass, etc., and he’s al-
ways had sensitive feelings toward that,” she said. “So I would
see him just be happy hugging the dogs and playing with the
dogs, just being fulfilled that he was able to give them some
playtime and love.”
14 OCTOBER 26, 2017
PHOTO BY PAVLINA2510/THINKSTOCK
He also previously convinced his family to give some love to
their own dog. After plenty of pleading, the Osers relented and
brought home Chester, a shih tzu who will be 3 next month.

“It’s because of Justin,” Debbie Oser laughed. “He would kind
of hock us and bother us — he really, really wanted a dog.”
Volunteering with the organization and completing his mitz-
vah project taught Justin “to give back and help others.”
“Just knowing I was helping the animals,” he said of the most
rewarding part, “and they could get out of the cage and I could
help them and play.”
“It was a wonderful experience for him,” Debbie Oser added.

“I was very happy that he was able to help Dog Town Rescue be-
cause they go out of their way to try to help as many animals as
they can and they’re just great people, so for Justin to be able to
help them as well as fill his heart helping the animals and getting
to give them a little bit of love, I thought it was a great experience.”
For Noah Goldstein, his Bar Mitzvah project came about
by accident — though his mother, Debra Goldstein, notes she
doesn’t believe in coincidences, especially with this project.

When going to pick out invitations for his June 2017 Bar
Mitzvah, they found one company, Checkerboard Ltd., whose
design is made especially for the Jewish Foundation for the
SIMCHAS JEWISHEXPONENT.COM




Righteous (JFR). The organization provides financial support “to
aged and needy non-Jews who rescued Jews during the Holocaust
and preserves their legacy through a national education program.”
“The sample invitation for what we were looking at had the
blurb about the JFR and my mother and I read it and we instantly
knew that was kind of what we wanted to do for my project,” re-
called Noah, a Garnet Valley Middle School student.

Through JFR’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah program, participants are
“twinned” with a righteous gentile who hid and thereby saved Jews
during the Holocaust. Noah was twinned in October 2016 with
Wladyslawa Dudziak, whose family hid and saved Rozia “Rose”
Bieman in Poland.

He developed a relationship with JFR Executive Vice President
Stanlee J. Stahl who, in November 2016, invited Noah to the JFR’s
annual gala in New York to recite the Motzi.

“It felt very special to be able to be part of Justin Oser with one
of the puppies at
the twinning program with the JFR and it felt Dog Town Rescue.

extra special to be one of the chosen people to PHOTO PROVIDED
sing the Motzi at the dinner that kind of cele-
brates the great deeds that the righteous people made during the
“It made it more memorable due to my Bar Mitzvah project, and
Holocaust,” Noah said.

having the woman who was saved by the righteous to come and
He began fundraising for the organization, launching a GoFundMe
witness my Bar Mitzvah really felt good,” Noah said.

effort with the goal of raising $18,000 in honor of chai, and correspond-
For Debra Goldstein, there were no coincidences with this project.

ing with Rose Bieman and her family, including husband Micha Golan
Prior to leaving for Israel, Noah’s school had an assembly in
and four children. The story about Noah’s project and link to his Go-
which a Holocaust survivor who was saved by a righteous gentile,
FundMe can also be found on the JFR’s homepage.

Ruth Kapp Hartz, spoke about Stacy Cretzmeyer’s book about her,
They belong to Congregation Beth Emeth in Wilmington, Del.,
Your Name is Renée.

but his Bar Mitzvah took place at Robinson’s Arch in front of the
The luncheon after Noah’s Bar Mitzvah was held at Confedera-
Western Wall in Israel. That’s a significant place for his Bar Mitzvah
tion House in Jerusalem, which they later learned was founded by
as Debra Goldstein’s late father, Herschel Israel Frankel, is buried
Kalman Sultanik, who survived several concentration camps and
on Har HaZeitim — and he was joined by some special guests.

was a former vice president of the World Jewish Congress.

In addition to his family, Noah became a Bar Mitzvah before
See PROJECTS, page 16
Rose and her family.

Design Your Perfect Event
BUSINESS MEETINGS, SOCIAL
NETWORKING RECEPTIONS,
WEDDINGS, BAT/BAR MIZVAHS,
AND OTHER PRIVATE EVENTS
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