May 21, 2020
Dear friends and family,
In 100 days, we will celebrate Jeremy’s Bar Mitzvah. We have been counting down for 40 months – yes, over three years – since we first learned that August 29, 2020 is when Jeremy would read from the Torah and become a Jewish adult. Our little Jeremy is (nearly) all grown up.
Our synagogue, B’nai Israel Congregation in Rockville, Maryland, is doing nearly all services online at this time, including Zoom Bar Mitzvahs, Zoom Shiva calls, and Zoom Minyans. So while we hope to have all our family and friends at the temple for this important day, we are thinking of new ways to mark this special day.
We invite you to do one or more of these things to celebrate Jeremy’s accomplishment:
- Record a short video congratulating Jeremy. We will compile these videos and present it to Jeremy as a reminder of all the love and support he had on this special day. You can do this as a group or individually; you can make it serious or funny; you can recall your own Bar/Bat Mitzvah; you can tell him you are proud of him; or just say congratulations or Mazel Tov. (Shh…we are hoping to get a few celebrity hellos into this video, so let us know if you have connections to help us make that happen.). Please send your video no later than August 15 to gailandsteve117@yahoo.com.
- Do a mitzvah (good deed) in Jeremy’s honor. In the 100 days leading up to his Bar Mitzvah, Jeremy will do one mitzvah each day, and we encourage you to do a mitzvah in Jeremy’s honor. Learn about “mitzvah-doing” here: https://pjlibrary.org/mitzvah. Some examples are: calling an elderly relative/friend/ neighbor, going on a nature walk and picking up trash, recycling or composting, or donating unused clothes or toys.
- Make a donation to SportsPlus. When Jeremy was very young, he participated in an inclusive, adaptive sports program which was instrumental in developing his athletic ability. Jeremy is now a volunteer with the program, its first “graduate” to do so. SportsPlus, a local Maryland nonprofit, is working to transition its adaptive sports program to an online format to continue serving kids with disabilities during the pandemic. This is such a good cause, and we are so happy that Jeremy chose to support SportsPlus as his Mitzvah project. You can make a tax-deductible donation in Jeremy’s honor here: https://playsportsplus.org/Donate
Thank you for helping us make this event memorable for Jeremy. And please SAVE THE DATE and plan to celebrate with us the morning of Saturday, August 29, 2020. Everyone is welcome, and the Zoom link (if necessary) will follow.
Let us know if you have any questions and thank you for supporting Jeremy!
Gail and Steve Silberglied, gailandsteve117@yahoo.com, 301-468-7033 home/202-580-5180 cell