Hello, my name is Emma Peretz. I have been a student at Rabbi Jacob Pressman Academy since I was four years old. My family and I have been members of Temple Beth Am in Los Angeles for the last nine years. I am now in the 7^th grade and celebrating my first year as a Bat-Mitzvah, a Daughter of the Commandments.

Besides learning my Torah (double) portion, Acharei Mot - Kedoshim (Leviticus 16:1-18:30 and 19:1-20:27), my Haftorah (Amos 7:9-15), composing a drash (Torah commentary), and preparing to lead Shabbat Morning Services at Temple Beth Am’s Library Minyan on May 2^nd, 2009, I am responsible for creating a “Mitzvah Project” which I wanted to be both meaningful and a service to the Jewish community.

I have chosen to focus my Mitzvah Project on the Shoah, the Holocaust. There are three areas related to the Holocaust that I am devoting my attention to. First, I am volunteering my time and raising money for the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust and the Remember Us Project . I will be asking everyone to make a donation to these organizations in lieu or any personal gifts. More on that later.

Second, I have met and interviewed an amazing lady, Sonya Sobol, who survived the Holocaust and lives in Los Angeles. Her journey is remarkable and I have really enjoyed getting to know her personally. Her story of how she helped save the life of her lifelong friend, Betty, is remarkable. I hope to meet with Betty, who lives in Israel, either in Los Angeles when she visits Sonya or in the summer when I am in Israel.

Finally, I am honoring the memory of a little girl, Ruti Hakel, who was murdered at age 4 at the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943. She was not able to have her own Bat-Mitzvah, so I am inviting her memory to be part of mine. I learned of Ruti from a friend of our family who has founded a project, the Remember Us Project, that researches the names of the young victims, together with any other information that might be available, so that they can be symbolically recognized. Please go to the Ruti Hakel page of my website for more details about her and her family.

In honor of Sonya, Betty, Ruti and all the Jews that both survived and perished in the Holocaust, I am committed to raising at least $18,000 to support the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. A portion of your gifts will also go to the Remember Us Project to support their work. These are wonderful causes that I believe in, and I am hoping that everyone will honor my Bat-Mitzvah by being generous in their tax-deductible donations.

Your gifts will further the work of the LA Museum of the Holocaust as it provides educational services for students (more than 10,000 mostly non-Jewish students visit the Museum each year at no charge), and as it prepares to move to its new permanent home in Pan Pacific Park in 2010. Your gifts will also allow the Remember Us Project to keep alive the memory of those children that died at such a young age.

To make your gifts, please click on the "Donate" button; it appears on every page of my website. Make sure you designate your donation as being on behalf of my Bat Mitzvah Project." I have chosen the number “18” because in Jewish tradition it represents “Chai”, which is Hebrew for life (as in L’Chaim - “to life”).

I have chosen the Star of David (“Magen David”) to represent your generosity. The Star of David is composed of 6 triangles completely surrounding the core. Each of the 6 triangles will represent 1,000,000 of the Jews killed in the Shoah. Every time $1,000 is raised, one triangle of the Star of David will be “lit” on the website. Once $6,000 is raised, all of the triangles surrounding the core will be bright with light. We can then start filling the core. While my goal is that the core be filled with $12,000 (for a total of $18,000), please know that the core has unlimited room for your gifts.

In addition to honoring my Bat-Mitzvah, you may also choose to honor some other person or group, or the memory of a loved one, as part of your donation. Please help me fill with light the ENTIRE Magen David! Don’t forget to keep visiting my website to see how WE are doing!

Thank you for taking the time to visit my website where I get to share all of these wonderful commitments, as well as information about my Bat Mitzvah weekend. Enjoy exploring my website, and keep coming back as I will be regularly updating it!

RSVP to the party in Los Angeles and/or Jerusalem, click here.