The Mitzvah Project is growing.
01/28/2023
As 2022 draws to a close, I’ve been reflecting on The Mitzvah Project’s origins, what we’ve accomplished and the critical tasks that lie ahead.
Throughout The Mitzvah Project’s history, one thing has remained a constant: our unwavering commitment to reach thousands of high school and college students with our message of “Never Again for Anyone”. Embodied in that message has always been (and will continue to be) our values of shared humanity, inclusion and empathy.
And, with your support, we’ll be taking that message to students across the country as we hit the road in 2023 with a powerful new team of Mitzvah Project Teaching Artists!
Let me explain.
For 8 years — from April 2014 (the year of the program’s initial tour) through November 3, 2022 (the date of my most recent high school presentation) — The Mitzvah Project was always a one-person (me) booking, performing, presenting and traveling effort.
No more. We’ve grown!
Because of your support, we’ve been able to build The Mitzvah Project Teaching Artist Program by successfully recruiting three powerful new voices who will bring this Holocaust/social justice-themed program to more high school and college students than ever before.
Even as we were bringing the Teaching Artist Program online over the past 12 months, we never stopped reaching and teaching hundreds of high school students — from Brooklyn to Sacramento.
Here’s some of the inspiring feedback we received during the year:
“The Mitzvah Project helped our students understand that making our country and our world more just is everyone’s responsibility.”
— Charley Gilmore, Sacramento County Office of Education
“My students were able to make the critical connection between the racism, anti-Semitism and white supremacy of today’s world and the roots of prejudice and hatred that gave rise to the Holocaust. Bravo!”
— Jack Chan, Assistant Principal, New Utrecht High School, Brooklyn, NY
Our ask
Your year-end, tax deductible gift means we can complete our current year’s work, jump start the 2023 program and continue to offer The Mitzvah Project *free of charge* to all public high schools.
*** To donate by mail, please make checks payable to PlayGround (add “The Mitzvah Project” in the memo section) and mail to: PlayGround, 3286 Adeline Street #8, Berkeley, CA 94703-2485. The Mitzvah Project is a fiscally-sponsored project of PlayGround (Federal ID 94-3336399), a California not-for-profit corporation.
Ramping up
In the first 6 months of 2023, the program’s Teaching Artists will give presentations to a combined audience of close to three thousand college and high school students — in New York City, Durham, North Carolina, New Jersey, Colorado, Arizona and Northern and Southern California.
And The Mitzvah Project’s culminating statement — “There is no ‘other; ‘the other’ is us” — will remain at the core of our presentation.
Thank you!
Onwards to 2023!
***
To you and your loved ones, my best wishes for a safe and healthy New Year… and Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas!
Roger Grunwald, Founder, The Mitzvah Project
