One Lucky Girl
by Katarina Konrad
When a girl
becomes bat
mitzvah, it is traditional
that she
do a mitzvah.
The good deed
can be for the local community, the way most
of them are, or it can be something else you
choose. My mitzvah was an emotional pilgrimage,
because I decided that I would return
to my birthplace in China to perform it.
On the morning of April 13, 2010, I
got on a plane to Beijing with my dad and
stepmother, Dona, whom I call Ibu. During
the flight, a thousand expectations raced
through my mind. When we arrived it was
already late afternoon of the next day, so we
didn’t do anything but unpack and settle
into our hotel. We also got to meet our personal
tour guide, whose English name was
Herb. His job was to help us get around Beijing
by translating Mandarin into English
and explaining the history and culture of
China. I was able to ask any questions I could
think of.
The next day, we went to see Tiananmen
Square and the Forbidden City, which
took most of the day. The Forbidden City
had so many gates, each the entrance to
another section of the city. We were able
to see where the emperor and his wives
stayed, ate, and slept. It was such a long, tiring,
exciting day but I could not wait to
see what the next one might bring.
The next day we got to climb the Great
Wall of China. If you don’t go to the Great
Wall then you didn’t really go to China!
Standing there, high above the countryside,
in a place where millions of people lived,
worked, and died to build this wall to protect
their homeland and their way of life,
I thought about our people in Jerusalem and
Masada, defending Israel, our faith, and our
traditions. We walked from Tower 11 to
Tower 6, which is a really long walk, and
then we got to slide down the wall. It was
a lot of fun! Later we also got to see where
the 2010 Olympics had been held. It was fun to see even though we weren’t allowed
to go inside any of the stadiums.
That evening we attended Shabbat services
at Temple Kehillat Beijing, where I
met a lot of girls who were exchange students
in China. I thought it was very nice that they
came to the synagogue to visit with me and
my family. The rabbi had sent a flyer to
welcome us – that’s how they knew we were
coming. I quickly became friends with two
sisters who had lived in Canada most of their
lives but moved to Beijing because their
mom, who is Chinese, wanted them to experience
living in China. The service was very
similar to the one in my synagogue. We sang
songs, chanted, and read all the same prayers.
After the service I was asked to say kiddush
and then the entire congregation enjoyed
a delicious American-style Shabbat dinner.
The next day, we woke up early to go
to Zhanjiang in Guangdong Province in
South China. That’s where my orphanage
is. Sadly, our guide Herb couldn’t come, but
we met a new tour guide, named Yorkee,
who spoke Cantonese. (In South China
more people speak Cantonese than Mandarin.)
When we arrived I wanted to look
around the city before settling in at the hotel.
This was the real heartland of China, different
in many ways from Beijing. Then we
made the long drive to the place where I was
found, the village of Mei, in a town called
Wuchuan. This was the whole reason why
I came to China. (Actually, the orphanage
building that I lived in when I was a baby
was moved, but it’s still in Wuchuan.) My
mitzvah project was to take the director
of my orphanage shopping for supplies, meet
the two women who took care of the babies,
and talk to the doctor who had examined me when I arrived at the orphanage.
Before I tell more about the orphanage,
I’d like to talk about myself a little bit. For
the first two years of my life, I was in an
orphanage with other babies like me. There
obviously were people there to take care
of us. I met the doctor who examined me
to see if I was healthy enough to stay there.
The director who had been there when I
was had retired, but the new director was
the person who actually had collected me
from the place where I was left and brought
me to the orphanage.
He was very kind, and took us to a restaurant
before we went shopping. I’m not sure
exactly how I was found, but the director
was able to show us where. It was at a temple
where the local people prayed to their
ancestors. He told us that there had been
a festival around the time I was found, so my
birth mom knew she could leave a baby and
be certain that someone would find her. I
learned that parents wanted boys more than
girls back then, so my real mom and maybe
my dad decided not to kill me but put me
somewhere someone could find me and I
could have a better life. Back then, if parents
in China were caught having two babies,
deserting a baby, or killing a baby, they’d
be put in jail or maybe even executed.
There are tons of ideas that have run
through my mind about why my mom had
to leave me. I don’t have a clear memory
from when I was a baby in China but I do
know that I’m very lucky to have two sets
of parents who love me dearly, just as much
as I love them. For my bat mitzvah project,
I decided to give back the kindness that
had been given to me so I emailed a letter
to all my family and friends talking about
my mitzvah project:
On April 12, 2011, I will go to China with
my dad and stepmom to experience my Chinese
heritage and visit the orphanage where
I lived the first two years of my life before I was
adopted by my dad and mom. My mitzvah
is to raise money by your donations so I may
take the director of the orphanage shopping
for supplies that the orphanage is in desperate
need of. To achieve my goal, I am asking
you for any donation you can make towards
this worthy cause that will aid in the survival
of babies in need of basic necessities, food, and
medicines. Again please be generous if you can,
it really means a lot to the children who have
not or never will be adopted as I was. Help me
achieve my goal!!! Not every child will be as
fortunate as I have been. By helping those
less fortunate, we will all do a mitzvah.
My project was a wonderful success. Most
of my family and many of my friends donated
to it. According to the orphanage director,
it was the most generous private donation
that they are likely ever to receive.
Back in the orphanage, I got to share a
book filled with pictures that my stepmom
had created to show how I’m living now.
Obviously, Yorkee had to interpret. The people
in the orphanage wanted to know how
my life is now just as much as I wanted to
know what my life had been like there. I was
able to thank them and of course they cried
happy tears for me. It was so emotional
that everyone was tearing up. Finally, we
went to a department store that sold the supplies
my orphanage needed. With the help
of some generous people, I was able to get
them a washing machine, ceiling fans, regular
fans, and 37 cases of baby milk powder.
I must say this was the most emotional
and adventurous journey I have ever taken.
I learned a lot throughout the trip, but no
matter how much I think about my past life
I will always be thankful for what I have
now. I want to say thanks to my family
and friends and especially to my parents,
who supported me every inch of the way.
I feel in my heart that God led me to the
path of my Jewish faith, and that through
His love God has given me strength to carry
my faith to others. I will never forget Temple
Beth Sholom or where I’m from and will
always think I’m one lucky girl.
Katarina Kronrad lives in Smithtown, New
York, where she is in the 8th grade. Her family
belongs to Temple Beth Sholom of Smithtown.