Victoria Stern’s Bat Mitzvah

Hello! My name is Victoria Stern. I’m in the 8th grade at The Brandeis School of San Francisco. In my free time I play sports, read and hang out with my friends. 

Our family joined Beth Sholom two and a half years ago after we moved to San Francisco from New York City. Beth Sholom was extraordinarily welcoming to me and our family and I started attending Shabbat school which I have really enjoyed.

My parsha is Bereshit, which is super exciting since it’s the very first parsha in the Torah and the story of creation. I was particularly interested in the phrase b’zelem elohim and how that has been interpreted by Jewish scholars over the generations. If you are interested in hearing more about it, you’ll have to come to my Bat Mitzvah!

Practicing for my Bat Mitzvah has been really fun. Marilyn Heiss is an incredible tutor and I am really going to miss our weekly Zoom calls together. Thank you, Marilyn, for great conversations and for teaching me so much. I also want to thank Rabbi Russell for studying with me and helping me with my drash. I also want to thank my parents and my sister and brother, Lilah and Benji, who have had to listen to me practice my parsha every day for the last few months. Lastly, I would like to thank my friends for supporting me through everything and always making me laugh. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone on my big day!