Bat Mitzvah date: April 30, 2022
Parents: Rachel Zoe and Brian Krasner

Welcome fellow astronauts, as you did come for a space themed bat mitzvah, this is my chance to thank you for sitting though this long hour, until your rocket ship takes you into cocktail hour. While you think this is finally over, I must now say my d’var torah. Starting my Torah portion, the Lord commanded Moses to tell the Israelites about the Ten Commandments. If you sat through the long history classes of 6th grade, you will definitely remember this topic. But there are many of these commandments mentioned in my Torah portion, but the theme that I would like to speak about is loving your fellow as yourself. If we skip to verse 18 of Kedoshim the english translation says: Do not take revenge nor bear a grudge against the children of your people. You must love your neighbor as [you love] yourself. I am God. God commands this in my Torah portion, which means it must apply in my own life. Thinking through the many ways I could, because most of my peers tend to solemnly make fun of each other, I understand this because I have true friends. Whether it’s fighting over who buys the other person food at lunch, or who can get the other person the coolest gift for the holidays, it all ties into what you would want for yourself. Who wouldn’t want a funny looking candle, or a limited edition cookie from the cafeteria? I know I would! Not just myself, but some of my friends, other people in the Diversity Club and I held a charity event at school called NARF. This stands for the Native American Rights Fund. We did this to protect Native American rights, resources, and lifestyles. The US has taken over many Native American reservations, and we wanted to spread awareness. This relates to love your fellow as yourself, but can also relate to charity – also known as tzedakah. Imagine your land gets invaded, and you need to support yourself. You would need money, right? Well like you would want for yourself, I, and my friends supported these people. We donated ourselves, but also with the help of most people in here and raised almost 1,000 dollars! That is helping someone like you would want for yourself, and raising tzedakah money.

To become a bat mitzvah, a daughter of the commandments, it was my job to make the world a better place. To do this I decided to raise money for Lev Lalev, an all girls orphanage located in Israel. Not only that, but I am dedicating my bat mitzvah all together to the orphans, so they can call themselves Jewish adults. I have spent the past 9-10 months preparing for this day, studying Torah, to only realize what I have learned will not just benefit me, but all of the orphans in the Lev Lalev orphanage. I am proud to call them, as well as myself, Jewish adults. I wanted to raise money for these girls because I, myself, don’t know what it is like to be an orphan. I quote from the Lev Lalev site “Disadvantaged children in Israel suffer when their parents can no longer adequately take care of them. Without parental love and support these children are lonely, miserable, isolated, and in despair. Often, they have nothing to eat, no warm home, and no safe and happy place to go after school.” This made me reflect. Growing up WITH parents, good food, a warm home, and places to go after school, I don’t know how any of these girls could stay mentally and physically intact. If I were one of them, I would fall apart. But these girls are strong. I want to share their story with you, and I want you to take in this message. These girls’ ages are widespread. Some come in as babies, or some come in as teens. Some of their guardians died, some were too ill to take care of them. The trauma these orphans have gone through is horrendous, but they stuck through every bit of it. They have grown up to be so strong that now you can even support them getting married. Lev Lalev wants the best conditions for these girls, and creating a fund was the least I could do. I ended up raising around 15,500 dollars, which is 13,000 dollars more than I set my funding goal. I have lots of gratitude for the people who have donated, and chose to support my journey. This money will go to make the orphans happy and comfortable in their living space for the upcoming years. I am so proud of them and I hope you are too.