These parties are akin to birthday parties plus weddings, and are often attended by extended family, friends, and members of the celebrant’s congregation. As with birthday parties, presents are given, often monetary gifts, especially in multiples of 18, a particularly auspicious number since it is the numerical equivalent of the Hebrew word for life or ‘chai’.
One Jewish boy who recently celebrated his bar mitzvah decided to do something extraordinary with the money he received and donated it all to build Israel’s first-ever Maker Bus to serve needy children in Israel. Noah Helfstein received $76,000 at his celebration and rather than spend it on himself, he decided to use it to create more opportunities for other children to gain hands-on experience with advanced making technologies.
Noah’s parents, Stacy and Jason Helfstein, are understandably proud of their son’s commitment to bringing this technology to children of Israel, whether Jews or Arabs, especially those living in more rural and less affluent communities that would otherwise not have access. Noah spoke for himself in an interview with Ynet News:
“I am very fond of innovative technologies and am connected to them. I chose to donate the money from my bar mitzvah to this project because I wanted to give as many children in Israel the opportunity to experience it.”
Noah has been interested in 3D printing, and has in fact built his own 3D printer. The Maker Bus – a project run by XLN, a subsidiary of the Reut Group, and Ofanim – will contain an advanced 3D printer to teach new makers how the technology works, and to create new objects.
“We are so proud Noah chose to be involved in this bar-mitzvah project and share the same opportunity he was fortunate to have – learning about 3D printing and cutting edge, innovative technology – with the children of Israel,” his parents said.
Congratulations to Noah for his bar mitzvah and on a heart-warming project realized…and mazel tov to his parents for having raised a caring and generous young man. Discuss in the Maker Bus forum over at 3DPB.com.