Raising puppies for future use as guide dogs or working in a food pantry? Environmental causes or raising awareness about Darfur? With so many worthy organizations from which to choose, how does a young person make a decision about a suitable bar or bat mitzva project?

More than 750 parents and kids from two dozen MetroWest area religious schools looked for answers among the 30-plus organizations represented at Mitzvot of MetroWest, a program sponsored by the Jewish Education Association of MetroWest on Jan. 29 at the Alex Aidekman Family Jewish Community Campus in Whippany. JEA is a beneficiary agency of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ.

Requirements for the projects — traditionally undertaken during the year leading up to a bar or bat mitzva — vary by synagogue. One might require as many as 25 hours, documented by the particular agency with which the child is working. Others might accept the parents’ word that a project has been completed.

Michael Emer, a 14-year-old from Mountain Lakes, liked his bar mitzva project so much, he’s still involved with it: He was at the program to present as a mitzva project working for the Seeing Eye Puppy Project, which provides guide dogs for the visually impaired. In fact, members of his family have been raising and training puppies for the Seeing Eye Inc. for 10 years. In a breakout session, Emer described the rewards and difficulties of his work. “It’s fun raising and working with the dogs,” he said, “but it’s hard to give them up.”

Not all the projects are fun and easy. Some can be intense, working in situations that test the youngsters’ comfort levels. Carolyn Lake, community outreach coordinator for the Interfaith Food Pantry, acknowledged the difficulty in choosing a suitable program. “A lot of kids have different areas and specific interests. Any way to get [them] more involved in the community, in any capacity, just raises awareness and makes them better human beings. It creates a legacy because this is something they’ll bring with them into adulthood, and it’s something they’ll encourage their children to do.”

Lake noted the nearby tables for Habitat for Humanities Newark and the Bobrow Food Pantry, which distributes nonperishable kosher food to the needy. She did not view them as vying for the kids’ attention.

“Our needs are very different and we actually complement each other because we offer different opportunities. Some kids want to do something specifically for the Jewish community.” It’s all for the same cause, she said: to help the disadvantaged.

Organizations representing the Jewish and secular communities included such diverse offerings as Essex County Eyes for Hope, Help Darfur Now, Make-A-Wish Foundation, and Mitzva Clowns. Some were seeking volunteers to work for the cause; others — such as Birthday Angels, which provides birthday parties for economically disadvantaged children in Israel — reached out for consideration for donations from the b’nei mitzva children, who often give a portion of their gifts to charity.

Some of the more established organizations had trouble attracting attention compared to newer, glitzier, and just plain more cuddly competition. Bright & Beautiful Therapy Dogs and the Seeing Eye Puppy Project, both of which had “sample” animals on hand, were well-attended; others, such as the Jewish National Fund, which has been around for generations, were relatively quiet.

Wendy Brody Keil, campaign executive for the JNF’s northeastern zone, agreed that the times were challenging. “We have to reeducate people that we’re not only trees,” she said. “We’re the infrastructure, we’re building in the Negev, we’re relocating people, we’re building reservoirs, we’re building inclusion parks [for handicapped children].”

Tzedaka personified

Rabbi Joel E. Soffin of Temple Shalom in Succasunna received a Lifetime Mitzva Hero Award for his commitment to tzedaka.

In her remarks to the families at the orientation and award ceremony, Shirley Bauer, a member of the program’s planning committee, hailed Soffin as a prime example of a leader performing mitzvot and acts of tzedaka.

“Whether it’s secretly bringing food and medicine to refuseniks in the former Soviet Union, building houses in five states in the United States [or] helping in places where it is too dangerous to personally go, like Darfur and Herzegovina, Rabbi Soffin continually does God’s work,” she said.

“My sense is that when people do the work of tzedaka, God is present there with them, and that those are among the holiest moments in our lives,” Soffin told NJ Jewish News before his keynote address. “These are the moments they never forget. When [the kids] look back on their lives, they will remember, ‘I did this special thing once. I took a risk, I helped somebody, I extended myself.’

“This work is contagious,” he said, “It’s inspired. Some people say that when you exercise, there’s a high you get. And you miss that and you crave that high. Well, I have seen a high people get doing tzedaka…. They want more of that, so the efforts to help and to make a difference will continue on and on. That’s the hope and that’s the challenge.”

He elaborated on that message to the families: Take a chance — put yourself out.

Soffin told a story about a young girl throwing beached starfish back into the ocean. A passerby told her there were too many for her to make a difference. The girl picked one up, tossed it into the surf, and said, “I made a difference to that one.”

Soffin told the children they might not be able to change the world, but if they can make a difference to improve just one life, they will have done well.

For more information on any of the mitzva projects, contact Joan Bronspiegel Dickman at 973-929-2979.