Igor Gottesfeld is the son of authors Jeff Gottesfeld and Cherie Bennett, and joined their family from the Tverskaya Oblast region of Russia when he was ten years old.

Now a happy eighth grader, he celebrated his bar mitzvah last March. His bar mitzvah project was to raise money for the small syngagogue in Tver, Russia, which was so helpful to his family. Russia isn't like America -- the average salary is less than $400 a month -- so the $2,600 that Igor raised and donated is worth something like $26,000 of our money!

Because of the Igor Gottesfeld Tver Fund, Jewish teens in Tver are going to have a youth lounge at their synagogue where they can hang out and have fun.

Igor loves to play guitar, snowboard, and is very strong at mathematics. He speaks English, Russian, some Hebrew, and some Spanish.

His fund is still active, and administered by the United Jewish Federation of Utah. If you are interested in helping out, he invites to you to email his dad at  jeffgottesfeld@yahoo.com. For information on the Jewish community in Tver, see this website in English: http://www.tverehudit.boom.ru/tver_eng.html

Igor also has great taste in YA fiction and pronouncd FAT KID RULES THE WORLD to be "Awesome".