Taking a break at the Falls
July 6, 2013
Dear Family, Friends, and Community,
I am writing to tell you about my Bat Mitzvah and to invite you to participate with me in making the world a safer, better, more lovely place for children and adults around the world.
After a year of Hebrew School, I decided that a traditional Bat Mitzvah was not the right path for me. My parents wanted me to do something meaningful that signified my becoming an adult in the Jewish community, even if it wasn’t in the traditional way. As we considered our options, we realized that we wanted this right of passage to take place within our Jewish community and our synagogue.
A boy at my school had biked to Duluth for an alternative Bar Mitzvah, and he raised money for an organization that he believed in. I heard of this and was immediately inspired. I realized this was what I wanted to do. My parents were incredibly supportive, and my father and grandfather offered to bike with me. The only two questions were: 1) How were we going to make this meaningful on a community level? and 2) How would our Rabbi and congregation react?
While I began training for my bike ride and thought about how I wanted to make a difference in the world, my mom and dad met with Rabbi Latz. They found out that he was supportive, and that our synagogue was looking for ways to offer a wider variety of meaningful options to kids for their B’nai Mitzvah. They were actually excited that we were asking them to support us in doing something different. Then I met with Rabbi Latz. Our first meeting went smoothly. I explained that the reason I wanted to do this was because I liked the idea of setting a huge challenge for myself, using this personal challenge as a way to make a difference in the world, and then sharing my experience with my community, my friends and my family. We decided that I would learn my Torah portion and then try and figure out how it translated into this bike trip and my life.
My Torah portion is the Ki Tavoh – the story of the Jews coming to the end of their 40 years of wandering in the desert after escaping from slavery. This is a perfect Torah portion for me because I decided that I wanted to make a difference in the world by focusing on genocide and modern day slavery. This is a challenging part of the Torah because it is towards the end and describes some pretty brutal curses that God says will happen to the Jews if they don’t obey the laws that God hands down to them before they enter the Promised Land. If the Jews obey the laws, they are told they will be blessed with peace and other good things.
At first I thought I would just raise money for an organization, but the more I learn about genocide and modern day slavery, the more I want to make a difference beyond raising money – to do what I can so that other people can have lives that they love as much as I love mine. So, as part of my “Bike Mitzvah”, I will be raising awareness and fundraising for World Without Genocide, a local organization whose mission is to “…protect innocent people around the world; prevent genocide by combating racism and prejudice; advocate for the prosecution of perpetrators; and remember those whose lives and cultures have been destroyed by violence.”
I personally am a huge feminist, and believe that no girl my age, or any human being, should ever be exposed to violence and other terrifying crimes and injustice. My goal is to try and help as much as I possibly can by:
- Learning and making connections between the history of my people, from the times of slavery in Egypt through the Holocaust, and the injustices that happen to people today around the world, including war crimes, human trafficking, and genocide;
- Raising awareness and money to help relieve the suffering of girls my age who have survived genocide and slavery; and
- Thinking about important questions like: Why do decent people do horrible things to others? Why do people follow orders when the orders are so obviously wrong? What responsibility do we have as human beings to be brave or to stand up for what is right? Can we judge people who don’t stand up for what is right if they are acting out of fear? As a 13-year old girl, what can I do to have as big an impact as possible? How do I invite others to join me? What can I do now vs. what is the life path for me that will allow me to be most effective?
I have been studying my Torah portion and blessings with Rabbi Latz and Wendy Goldberg at Shir Tikvah, meeting with Ellen Kennedy at World Without Genocide, and learning about the horrible history of genocide and the amazing people who stand up and make a difference. I will attend a World Without Genocide Summer Institute for teens at William Mitchell Law School in August, will receive a blessing and my tallit (prayer shawl) during Shabbat services on August 16th, and then I’ll leave for my bike ride to Duluth on August 18th. Before that, on July 27th, my parents and I will host a house party for Carl Wilkins, a man who saved hundreds of children’s lives during the genocide in Rwanda. While I’m biking, I will think about all of the blessings in my life and how a long bike ride compares to the much longer journey my people made in the desert. Finally, when I get back I will give a Dvar Torah (Torah speech) at Shir Tikvah about my experiences and my Torah portion, after more study with Rabbi Latz in the Fall.
You can follow my progress, send me encouragement on my ride, learn about World Without Genocide and make a donation in honor of my Bat Mitzvah on my Blog site:
https://leilabikemitzvah.wordpress.com/
Sincerely,
Leila Pergament Lowry
For more information about World Without Genocide, click here.
To make a donation, click here, or click the button below:
Leila's Bat Mitzvah ("Bike Mitzvah!") 