The Mitzvah Project

Brainstorm causes children care about; help each choose a doable project.

Children wonder and discover; you facilitate more than you lecture.

• What does our world need repairing?
• What cause speaks to me?
• How can one person make a real difference?

The mitzvah project channels the values built since Grade 1 into self-directed social action — the most personal expression of tikkun olam and a centerpiece of B’nei Mitzvah.

• Tikkun olam — repairing the world
• G’milut chasadim — acts of kindness

“Does my project have to be big?”

No — meaningful and real matters more than big. Sustained kindness changes the world.

• Children design a self-directed mitzvah project addressing a real need.
• Children connect their project to Jewish values (tikkun olam, g’milut chasadim).

Offer a wide range of projects so every child — regardless of resources or ability — can lead one with pride.

Folktale. The Thirty-Six Hidden Helpers (Folklore) — the world rests on 36 hidden righteous people — maybe you are one.

Changemaker. Ruth Messinger — spent two decades arguing that tikkun olam means the places Jews have no connection to at all, and sent Jewish help to them.

Argue the priorities: of all the world’s needs, which should your project serve, and why?

“Your child is designing a mitzvah project. Try at home: talk about causes your family cares about and how to help.”