Josie Goldlau
Chavah bat Yonaton v'Matty
Josie is in 8th grade at Hunter's Point Community Middle School in Long Island City. She likes reading, music, climbing on things she's not supposed to, and eating tasty food. She is in the Dungeons and Dragons club at her school and is co-captain of the track team at her school. Josie loves plants, being outside, and nature, interests that are also shown in her Mitzvah project.
Thank You!
Thank you to my parents, for helping me and being with me for every part of this, even when things were really stressful! Thank you to Sharone for teaching all of us Hebrew every Wednesday for two years. Thank you Sophie, my Hebrew tutor for teaching me my Torah and Haftarah section and for being very patient even when I showed up late sometimes. Thank you C for being our social justice teacher. Thank you Jim for also showing us how social justice connects to Judaism. And last but definitely not least, thank you so much to Rabbi G for helping me with my D'var Torah and helping me through the entire long and complicated Bat Mitzvah process!
In Memoriam
My grandfather Henry Goldstein and my grandmother Rochelle Cashdan
Mitzvah Project
For my Mitzvah project, I have been volunteering with the Jackson Heights Beautification Group (JHBG). The JHBG is an organization dedicated to making Jackson Heights greener, cleaner, and welcoming to all. Something I learned while doing research for my Mitzvah project is that Jackson Heights has the least parks of almost any neighborhood in NYC. Sure, there's Travers Park and the Open Street, which are both great, but other than that, there's not much else. Since this is the case, and building a new park would be very hard , expensive, and would take a really long time, it is important we make the most of the small pockets of green space we already have and try to keep them thriving and garbage free. I wanted to work with the JHBG because they are an organization that tries to do all of this and more. So far I have helped them with cleaning up and replanting tree and flower beds on 37th avenue. I plan to continue volunteering with them even more until and even after my Bat Mitzvah.
