Mazel Tov Misha Montgomery and the Montgomery family!

Misha Victoria (Malka) Montgomery will be called to the Torah at Midbar Kodesh Temple in October. Misha will be the first person in her family to have an official B'nei Mitzvah ceremony in over 100 years because her mother’s part of the family is originally from the former USSR, and because of political factors, were not able to practice Judaism openly. The last B'nei Mitzvah in Misha's family was sometime in the late 1800s. Misha’s parents, Helen Zaikina-Montgomery and Micheal Montgomery, members of Midbar Kodesh Temple, are proud and excited for this special occasion and look forward to celebrating their daughter's Bat Mitzvah with family and friends.

Misha has been focused on academics since she started school and was enrolled in the GATE program for the academically talented and gifted in elementary school. Misha is currently a 7th grade student who excels in all academic subjects, especially mathematics and science. She takes advanced Algebra and has some of the highest scores in the state of Nevada in English Language Arts and Mathematics assessment. She is interested in physics and is thinking of majoring in astrophysics in college. She hopes to study in Europe or Japan for graduate school.

In addition to academics Misha is passionate about music. She plays the bassoon in her school’s advanced and jazz bands and bass guitar in her school’s School of Rock band. She also plays the piano and taught herself how to play trumpet over the past summer. Misha recently began tutoring elementary students in math and is hoping to continue tutoring in high school and college.

Misha, yet undecided on her Mitzvah Project, comes from an animal loving family with quite a few dogs. She would like to either train one of her dogs to volunteer with Pet Partners, an organization that provides volunteer therapy animals for any situation where a therapy animal can be of use, or to volunteer in the Clark County Library District’s Young People’s Library.