The HIAS B Mitzvah Toolkit

Hello and Welcome!

Many synagogues require a “mitzvah project” as part of the bar/bat/b’nai/B mitzvah process.  HIAS has heard demand for kids, parents, clergy, and educators for tools to make it easy for kids passionate about helping refugees to dedicate their mitzvah projects to fulfilling the Jewish commandment to welcome the stranger. Responding to this overwhelming interest, we have developed this toolkit and are seeking input from students and the parents, clergy and educators supporting them in their project on how to further improve this wonderful resource.

About our pilot

HIAS is seeking 18 students to participate in our pilot of this toolkit during the 2024-25 academic year. Pilot participants will commit to using this toolkit as a roadmap for their b mitzvah project and offering feedback throughout the year through surveys, focus groups, and/or conversations with HIAS staff members. This will be a lot of fun and a great opportunity to participate in the development of a tool that will hopefully be useful for students and congregations for years to come. We hope you will join us!

How to sign up

You can click here to preview the guide and here to sign up to participate in the pilot. We are distributing this special password-protected resource exclusively to students interested in utilizing it for the year and rabbis or educators who may know kids interested in being part of the pilot. Please feel free to share the sign-up link with other students you think might be interested but please do not share the powerpoint itself; we want to make sure we are able to stay in contact with everybody who accesses the kit so that we can learn from the small group of people involved in the pilot!