Join Us: Spring Mitzvah Fair at SOS Children’s Village

There Are Kids Right Here Who Need Us

Twelve miles from Boca Raton. Twenty minutes from Delray Beach. On a campus in Coconut Creek that looks like a small, quiet neighborhood, children in foster care are living out their childhoods without the permanence and stability that most children take for granted.

They go to school. They do homework. They play outside. They want what every child wants: to be seen, to matter to someone, to know that someone chose to show up for them today.

This May, Neshamah is showing up.

About the Spring Mitzvah Fair

The Neshamah Spring Mitzvah Fair is our annual community service day at SOS Children’s Village in Coconut Creek, a campus that provides residential care and support for children in the foster care system.

For one afternoon, Neshamah families and students spend time with the children at SOS doing what kids do best: playing sports, making things, laughing, competing, and connecting. No agenda beyond presence. No program beyond showing up.

This is Jewish values in action. This is what tikkun olam looks like when it leaves the prayer book and enters the real world. This is why we study Torah: so that we know what to do when we arrive.

Event Details

• Date: May 17, 2026 
• Location: SOS Children’s Village, Coconut Creek, Florida
• Time: 1:00 pm  
• Who: All Neshamah families and all  friends of Neshamah are welcome
• Cost: Free 
• What to wear: Comfortable, active clothing and closed-toe shoes

Who This Is For

This event is for every Neshamah family, not only students in B’nai Mitzvah preparation, though it is a meaningful experience at that stage. Younger children can participate alongside parents. Older students often become informal leaders on the day.

If you have been looking for a way to make Jewish values real for your children, not as a concept but as an experience, this is the day.

If you have been wanting to find a community that takes service seriously, not as an add-on but as a core expression of who we are, come see what Neshamah looks like in action.

A Note From Rabbi Amy

Every year after the Mitzvah Fair, I hear from parents who say something like: ‘I expected my kid to get something out of it. I didn’t expect to get something out of it too.’

That’s the thing about showing up for someone else. It changes you. It reminds you what actually matters. And it does something for your children that no classroom, no bar or bat mitzvah lesson, no Shabbat dinner can fully do on its own: it makes them feel powerful. Not powerful over someone. Powerful in the right direction. Powerful enough to make a difference.

That’s the whole project of Jewish life. Come do it with us.

The Neshamah Institute is a dues-free, synagogue-without-walls Jewish community founded by Rabbi Amy Rader and serving Boca Raton, Delray Beach, and greater Palm Beach County. We believe that Jewish life is most alive when it is practiced: in service, in song, in community, and in relationship.