For her bat mitzvah project earlier this month, Merav Friedman held a clothing drive at Kemp Mill Synagogue in Silver Spring, which yielded around 200 bags of clothes, shoes and coats that were shipped to local gemachs (loan societies) in Silver Spring and Baltimore. In the spirit of gemilut chasadim “acts of loving-kindness,” Friedman, a seventh-grader at Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy in Rockville, her two brothers, more than 30 of her schoolmates and other area children, teens and adults, spent hours going through the donations sent in, which consisted of new and used clothing items. Due to the outpouring of donations, a minivan and a 14-foot U-Haul truck were used to transport the bags to the local gemachs. It was a lot of work, Friedman said, but it was fun to give to others in need. Friedman became a bat mitzvah in December.
