The following essay on community service was written by Gabriel Brazil, a middle schooler, enrolled in City Congregation’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah program. Students spend a year and a half researching their heritage, values and beliefs, and write on a Jewish subject of their choice, their major project; they also perform 13 hours of community service, and write about it. An example of this component can be seen below. The process improves both the student’s writing and critical thinking skills, as well as their self confidence and overall maturity.
My Bar Mitzvah encourages me to not only take responsibility for being a good student and family member, but it asks me to be a good citizen as well. Last year, I joined the Boy Scouts of America. One of the attractive features of the Boy Scouts is their commitment to service. My troop volunteers in the soup kitchen of the building where we meet.
For the last year, I’ve been helping out at the soup kitchen every month. We prepare chicken salad sandwiches, soup, snacks and fruits. We bag them, and serve them with coffee. Every time we go to the soup kitchen, we make 60 of these bags, and serve them to the homeless, hungry people lined up outside.
Additionally, I participated in my friend’s Eagle Scout project earlier this year, in which we prepared 100 backpacks full of food, soap, water, clothes, and even a map of NYC to help those in need find all the soup kitchens so they don’t go hungry in the future.
According to the Coalition for the Homeless, in June 2020, there were almost 60,000 homeless people sleeping each night in New York City shelters. In addition, thousands of homeless people sleep on the streets, in the subway, and in other public spaces each night.
It can be hard work and tedious to prepare all this food, but volunteering with others makes it more fun. I know how lucky I am not to experience homelessness or hunger. As a citizen I feel a personal obligation to try to do my best to help people who need it.
In addition to this direct work, I think it is important to stand up with fellow citizens on a broad range of issues. I went to various marches to support the rights of others, and to stand up for important ideas and principles. Some of the marches were during winter and it was cold, but it felt great to be with others who share the same values.
Last year, on Tisha B’Av, the saddest day in the Jewish calendar, my mom and I went to protest against the terrible practices towards immigrants at the Mexican border, such as family separations and putting children in cages. About a thousand of us were protesting Amazon’s contract with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which uses Amazon web services.
This protest was different from the other marches I’ve been on, because we went to occupy Amazon’s book shop in midtown New York. Some of the rabbis present read from The Book of Lamentations, or Ay-cha, which is the traditional text for Tisha B’Av. After a while, Amazon called the police, but we left before they arrived. My mom said that if she was arrested, who would look after me and my brother? About 40 people were arrested, including our own Rabbi Tzemah. This protest was particularly meaningful to our family, because like most Jews, my family is made up of immigrants. Including my mom!
In the future, I plan to continue helping at the soup kitchen and standing up for things that I find important. I’m planning to donate a portion of my Bar Mitzvah money to the Coalition for the Homeless. Most of all, I will continue being kind.
