celebrate

a guide to simchahs

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The Mitzvah List

Detroit - Troy/Auburn Hills
850 Tower Br, Troy, MI 48098
248-879-7500

Local mom makes choosing your child's
bar or bat mitzvah date a lot easier.

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Lynne Konstantin I Contributing Writer

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It's a

i

A ast year, when Beth

Desmon's daughter,
Sammi, was 8, she
received a letter from Temple
Israel in West Bloomfield asking
that she come in to choose a bat
mitzvah date.
But for months
before that, moth-
ers in the Metro
Detroit area were
frantically calling,
Search for
texting and email-
Mitzvah
Dates
ing each other to
find out the hope-
ful date of each
child's mitzvah,
especially the kids at their own
child's school.
"Parents at each elementary
school, like West Hills or West
Maple, create an unofficial list
because no one wants there to be
any conflicts, and it can be very
stressful," says Desmon, who lives
in West Bloomfield. "But each
list only includes the kids from
their respective school. And my

006

Beth Desmon with her husband, Mike,
and kids Sammi and Jake

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itzvahDate

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or that half their friends won't be
able to attend.
Desmon, a lawyer and former
co-owner of CutestBabyClothes.
corn with her sister Ericka
Beletskiy, began scouring the Web

kids, like many others, do a lot of
extracurricular activities and have
friends all over."
And, she adds, no one wants
to get to the planning stage,
when it's too late to change the
date, only to find out that there's
another child with the same date,

for a site that would compile all
b'nai mitzvah dates, but came up
empty.
So she created her own.
MyMitzvahDate.com was
launched last May and has
already received national regis-
tries. The website allows visitors to
register each of their child's dates
(at no charge) and search bar or
bat mitzvahs by child's name, syn-
agogue, school, camp or zip code
(within a certain radius).
Once a search is completed,
only the child's first name and
last initial, along with the event
information, shows up (contact
information is not accessible by
users, and privacy standards are
strictly adhered).
"This way, a child's informa-
tion is kept private, but a person
who is legitimately using the site
will know if there are conflicts,"
Desmon says.
Because the site is still evolv-
ing, Desmon is always looking for
feedback and has plans to layer
in additional features, including
featured events, resources and the
opportunity to advertise.
"The goal is to have a universal
list of all b'nai mitzvah dates so
that conflicts will be minimized.
Everyone wants their event to be
well-attended, and this will help."
To register, visit MyMitzvahDate.
com.

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