JKHA sixth graders participated in a magnificent and meaningful bat mitzvah week. They began the week with guests all the way from York Mills, Ontario. Rivky Gansburg started with an inspiring message about what it means to become a bat mitzvah. Then her daughters told the girls about the chesed projects that they took on in honor of their bat mitzvahs, from Roza baking challah and giving the proceeds to an organization that helps special-needs children internationally to Chaya using her passion for drawing, selling her paintings to help Israeli terror victims. The sixth grade girls then painted beautiful canvases to donate to an old age home.

The second day of programming started with an introductory exercise with Ms. Wasserman about the idea of the house as a foundation of a young Jewish woman, and thinking about all of the things they add to their houses as metaphors for the influences in their life. Then the students enjoyed a rebbetzin panel, with community rebbetzins answering questions and sharing their perspective on what it means to be a part of a community and becoming bat mitzvah. The day ended with a special girls-only concert featuring Esther Freeman where the girls enjoyed joyously by singing and dancing.

The week continued with the theme of role models and students broke into groups to learn about the imahot in an escape-room style activity. Each group learned about some of the imahot and neviot. By answering questions about these role models, the girls figured out clues to opening the lock of the next box. The day concluded with making keychains symbolizing the girls as the next “link in the chain.”
On day four, Ms. Gerson from RKYHS led a lively session on simcha dancing and learned about being inclusive in each of their own bat mitzvah celebrations. On the final day, students created inspiration boards with the messages they want to take with them. They were tasked with creating their own hashtag that describes who they want to become and create a collage of images that relate to their hashtag. The students were excited to use their creativity and create these keepsakes