Bergenfield’s Sara Gans recently celebrated her bat mitzvah with a paint night. She always enjoyed art and loved being able to connect the painting to her ”tashlich” theme by incorporating a waterscape into the painting. Though the theme itself added a layer of meaning to her simcha, she also wanted to find a way for her bat mitzvah to connect to the community. As a student in the Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey, a longtime partner school with SINAI, Sara felt connected to SINAI and appreciated their message of providing a Jewish education for all students. Sara decided that as part of her simcha, she would also provide art supplies to SINAI’s art therapy program. Following the event, the easels and canvases used for displaying the table numbers were donated to SINAI, along with paints and paintbrushes. “I like art and wanted it to be part of my bat mitzvah, and SINAI is part of my school and my family’s involvement, so it felt right to combine the two,” said Sara.

“The art materials that Sara donated were so helpful,” said Sarah Tarzik, art therapist for SINAI Schools. “The kids were excited to use the acrylic paints on canvases and had so much fun expressing themselves using the colors. They each created their own unique paintings that they were proud of.”

By Jenny Gans

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