Bar/Bat Mitzvah Stories

Prior to becoming a Bar Mitzvah, Max Antman volunteered as a tutor at Oakton Elementary School. “I thought tutoring kids and giving them more knowledge would give them a better chance at getting good jobs in the future,” says Max. It seemed like a good mitzvah project. And so for four months he tutored four first graders in math and reading.

“Sometimes the teacher would give me activities to do with the kids—reading them books, have them summarize what’d they’d heard to make sure they were listening,” says Max. “But first graders don’t have that long of an attention span. I tried to make games like word searches that would help them…I tried to keep them motivated.”

Max developed a real fondness for his students. “You have to be good with kids otherwise they won’t listen to you,” he says. “You have to have a lot of patience because they’re not going to ‘get it’ on the first try. You have to let them try again.”

Max says the best part about tutoring was how the kids responded to him. “When I got there they wouldn’t want me to leave when I was done,” he says. “That made me happy.”

Max became a Bar Mitzvah on January 28th at Beth Emet The Free Synagogue in Evanston. Since becoming a Bar Mitzvah, he says he has accepted the requirements necessary to be a Jewish adult. “When you think about yourself, even if you’re not the richest person in the world, you’re still more fortunate than many other people,” he says. “You have to share the knowledge you have that others don’t have.” You certainly do. Way to go, Max!