That’s the ques­tion Sune­by and Heiman answer in The Mitz­vah Project Book. A resource for young adults and their par­ents, this book is full of ideas about how to repair the world in a way that’s indi­vid­u­al­ly mean­ing­ful. Draw­ing on a wide range of young Jew­ish adults, the authors cite exam­ples of kids who have giv­en back to the world by fol­low­ing their pas­sions. One teen who loved to knit com­mit­ted to knit­ting caps for a Jew­ish orga­ni­za­tion that col­lects them and dis­trib­utes them to chil­dren fight­ing can­cer. Anoth­er ran a par­ty for chil­dren at a home­less shel­ter where they got to make their own ice cream sun­daes. Yet anoth­er vol­un­teered at a food bank while a fourth, a kid who loved read­ing, pur­chased books for a library on a reservation.

The Mitz­vah Project Book is a call to action, encour­ag­ing kids of bar and bat mitz­vah age to do all they can do to help repair the world. The authors give infor­ma­tion and sug­gest activ­i­ties intend­ed to spark the imag­i­na­tions of their read­ers and offer a plan­ning guide to help kids get start­ed. There are mitz­vah project ideas, pro­files of young peo­ple from around the coun­try who have done mitz­vah projects and jour­nal pages kids can write in as they devel­op their own ini­tia­tives. These exam­ples are inspir­ing and the book’s mes­sage is clear: each of us can have a mean­ing­ful impact if we are tru­ly com­mit­ted. Rec­om­mend­ed for ages 10 – 13.