Mitzvah Mom Sheri Lapidus is at it again, using her knowledge and experience to make it easier for families to plan their Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. She has developed Mitzvah Organizer, software that resides in the cloud to help fellow parents keep track of all the planning details for their special occasion. Having managed, and that is truly what it is, both her children’s Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, she knows the many details and arrangements that had to be tracked. Her conclusion was there must be an easier way.
Lapidus launched Mitzvahmarket.com
in 2008, which has grown into the world’s most comprehensive Bar and Bat Mitzvah resource. She and her friends were trying to find a place that could answer their many questions, but couldn’t find a single source with the answers, so she created a website. Over the years, it has grown to include over 2,000 articles filled with the newest, most unique ideas, a Mitzvah Project resource section, a vendor directory to connect parents and suppliers, a mom-to-mom advice section and the reader’s favorite, Mitzvah Family Spotlight stories based on actual celebrations.
Having used the Internet to offer thousands of family’s advice on how to plan their celebrations, she embarked on the next step: simplifying their happy event, their simcha. She remembers losing her dining room table for three months because it was loaded up with stacks of brochures, address lists, flyers and other information. Why not use technology again to solve the problem? Thus she created Mitzvah Organizer, which keeps track of all the details involved in arranging the entire celebration. Moms are thinking about their events all their time, so Mitzvah Organizer is with them 24/7, stored in the cloud and available on a laptop, tablet and phone.
The next challenge in building Mitzvah Organizer was to replay the conversations Lapidus had with parents and what would be most helpful in making their lives easier. Knowing how busy parents are she established a few ground rules: enter data only once and enable them to easily share information in different formats, reports, spreadsheets and summaries with key partners, including Rabbis, caterers and calligraphers. If Mitzvah Organizer wasn’t easy to use and comprehensive, it really didn’t solve parents’ problems.
The next step was organizing Mitzvah Organizer. Lapidus identified all the components she could think of and grouped them into logical categories. The program is structured around the main areas such as invitations, table assignments, Temple honors and other logistics. What she is most proud of about Mitzvah Organizer is that she used her years of experience and thousands of conversations with parents to try to think of everything. The program accounts for the different permutations for addressing envelopes, sizes of party favors, song lists for candle lighting, transportation assignments for bus captains and other mundane details that when not covered present a problem. Of course, the software had to address one of the most important tasks, budgeting. The program can track down to the penny and actual costs.
Mitzvah Organizer has been tested by families in different regions of the U.S. with great results.
Lapidus, the Mitzvah Mom, has helped thousands of families. When the business grew too big for her to handle on her own, she sold it in 2012 to Davler Media Group, which already had a Bar Bat Mitzvah magazine and party showcase business. Now she is the Mitzvah executive and oversees a staff of other moms who produce multimedia services to help parents throughout the world with the Bar and Bat Mitzvah process. She is constantly hearing about all aspects of the Bar and Bat Mitzvah experience, sharing it with the world and building a commercial enterprise. It is a mom’s dream come true, a result of Lapidus planning her own daughter’s Bat Mitzvah.
Visit www.mitzvahorganizer.com to see what the Mitzvah Mom has created.
—Courtesy of Davler Media
