B'nai Mitzvah Profile - Ben Katz

Bar Mitzvah Date - September 24, 2011

My name is Ben Katz.  I was born in New York City and lived in Hoboken before we moved to Montclair in 2005. I have a twin brother, Oliver, and a miniature schnauzer named Bella. I am about to celebrate my Bar Mitzvah on September 24th, which is also 25th Elul, 5771.  I am in the 7th grade at Mt. Hebron Middle School and enjoy snow boarding and playing lacrosse and soccer.

For my Mitzvah project, I worked at The Alpine Learning Group with children with autism, ages 4-7, helping them to play soccer and other sports and teaching them social skills.There was one boy named Noah who was really attached to me.  We became friends – I am like his big brother.  I taught the kids how to interact with typically-developed kids, and to just have fun and a good time which they definitely did when I was with them.  It was an amazing and very satisfying experience, knowing that these kids will hopefully be able to now join their community and play soccer and other team sports because of what they learned from me.

My Torah passage, Nitzavim, is about when Moses made his last words to the Jews.  Famous Jews like Joshua were there, and the Israelites participated in a ceremony establishing the covenant with G-d.Moses lists those present in the order of their social status.This parashat is read usually together with Vayelech on Shabbat. The whole of the community is greater than the sum of its parts.These passages have helped me to understand that people can come together and help each other, and make a much greater impact as a group than if they were to act as individuals.  An example of this is my own Mitzvah project in which, working with my brother Oliver, we were able to use our soccer and other sports skills that were taught to us over the years and transfer these skills to a group of special needs kids.