Daniel and Lauren Deitch, from Hidden Hills, Calif. celebrated their b'nei mitzvah on December 9, 2006. As a mitzvah project, the two wrote a book on their grandparents' story of surviving the Holocaust. Their essay on this experience won first prize in the third annual Areyvut Bnai Mitzvah Essay Contest.

Each winner had his/her essay posted on the Areyvut web site, has been invited to speak about their projects to other students and received various prizes including an iPod, a Giving Certificate to be redeemed at Tzedakah, Inc., The Jewish Publication Society and Judaica Press. Areyvut will begin accepting submissions for their fourth annual contest in the summer. Check their website for details at www.areyvut.org. Now, read Daniel and Lauren's award-winning essay.

It all started when our temple required that we perform a mitzvah project. Honestly, we were so busy with school, scouting and sports that we really weren't that into the idea. So we decided to collect books for BookEnds, an organization that organizes book drives to recycle children's books to create libraries for children in schools, hospitals and youth organizations. We planned to ask our family and friends to bring books to our b'nei mitzvah, not only because we knew it was a good cause, but also because it would be a pretty simple project for us.

Then, at the end of June, 2006 before our b'nei mitzvah, our grandmother Julie passed away. During her shivah, our parents showed the video tape of her interview with the Shoah Foundation. We started to ask many questions about her life in Hungary, and how she had survived the Holocaust when all of her family had been murdered by the Nazis.

That's when we came up with the idea of writing a book to distribute at our b'nei mitzvah. Since our grandmother had really wanted to be at our b'nei mitzvah, we felt that this was a meaningful way to include her memory. Although the book is an account of her experience, we decided to include our grandfather's fascinating story as well. He was part of the Kindertransport, which saved his life, while his parents had to escape to Shanghai, China in order to survive.       

As part of our research for the book, our parents brought us to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. This experience truly moved us. It was then that we felt how important it was for us to write this book, to help people remember that over eleven million people were killed during the Holocaust because of hate and intolerance. This visit challenged us to explore the meaning of tolerance and to look for a way to help people learn to take responsibility for their actions. We believe that only then will we be able to live in peace with people of different races, religions and beliefs.

We feel that our book can make an impact on kids our age and maybe even their parents. People need to remember what happened in World War II. At our school, it seems that only half the kids know about the Holocaust. Since we have written this book, students and teachers are finally starting to talk about what happened.

At our b'nei mitzvah, our rabbi introduced our book to our family, friends and congregation. Because nobody except our parents knew about the book, it was a huge surprise. As an extra bonus, people donated their used books to the BookEnds project, too.

For an ongoing way to honor our grandparents, we came up with the idea of giving our profits of the sale of our book to The Blue Card Fund, a national charity that provides financial assistance to needy Jewish survivors of Nazi persecution. What a nice surprise it was to have people send us donations for the Fund. We hope that our book will continue bringing attention to this worthy charitable organization.

Areyvut helps Jewish day schools and congregational schools to create new and meaningful tikkun olam programs for their students. Visit www.areyvut.org for more information.