Like many b'nei mitzva, Adam Simkin marked his coming of age with a tzedaka project, in his case helping the hospice group that cared for his grandmother in her last days.

Unlike many b'nei mitzva, Simkin, now 18, has continued his charitable efforts, thanks to a program that allows teenagers like him to invest in a long-term tzedaka fund and from that make donations each year to a worthy Jewish cause.

In the five years since his bar mitzva, the youth philanthropy program, known as B'nai Tzedek, has become a big part of Simkin's life. The Massachusetts teen belongs to a group whose members have pooled their funds, giving them $3,000 to dispense to charity each year, a venture that has formed a special bond between them.

"This might sound cheesy and corny, but all my best friends have come from B'nai Tzedek," he told a group of teen and preteen would-be philanthropists in Scotch Plains on Nov. 18 at the launch of the local B'nai Tzedek program. "It just does attract a better cut of kid."

The local version of the program is being offered by the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey's Jewish Community Endowment Foundation. Youngsters are invited to start a personal fund with a minimum donation of $1,000 — from bar or bat mitzva gifts, pocket money, or any other source. Each year, they have a chance to give five percent of what is in their fund to any Jewish cause of their choice. The more they put in, the more there is to give.

"This is smart money," Simkin said, "and it's something that can stick with you all your life."

Simkin comes from Northampton, Mass., where the program was started by the Harold Grinspoon Foundation. Now a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania, he has been speaking in communities across the region to help spread the word about it.

Versions of the program are already functioning in other regions, with the young benefactors networking with one another and in some cases pooling their resources. During the winter, the local participants will get together for a "mini-mission," a tour of area organizations supported by the Jewish community. At the end of the year they will have a celebratory event where they will be able to announce the charity they have each chosen to support.

In the days before the launch, longtime Plainfield resident Sandy Berman decided she wanted to augment the funds started by the teens. Berman is in charge of the trust that was created when the Plainfield Hebrew Day School building was sold years ago. Last spring she turned the funds over to the Endowment Foundation, creating a designated fund to "support the community." She decided, however, that she wanted to be a bit more specific about that support.

According to Jessica Mehlman, the federation's assistant director of financial resource development, Berman was so impressed with the B'nai Tzedek program that she decided to add $100 to every new fund.

In his presentation to the prospective B'nai Tzedek participants, Simkin engaged them in a game that had them competing for chocolate candies and then making decisions about sharing the treats fairly. Within half an hour, Simkin had the teens recreating society, with its imbalance of wealth, dilemmas about distribution, and lessons about what individuals can do to help others in need.

"I've seen a lot of ways people give and allocate money, and B'nai Tzedek is the best," he told them.

The allocations process helps clarify one's priorities, he continued. "It makes you think about your values, and ask yourself the tough questions," he said. "I wish I'd started asking these questions when I was three — but then I suppose I'd have been an extraordinarily weird three-year-old."

While Simkin was talking to the young people, Mehlman took their parents aside to discuss the details of the program. For Lee Goldberg, son of JCC of Central New Jersey president Mindy Goldberg and her husband, Glen, and Haley Needle, daughter of federation Women's Campaign president Erica Needle and her husband, Steven, communal tzedaka may be a lesson they learn at home. But Mehlman said B'nai Tzedek is an inspiring way to engage the next generation in "giving Jewishly." Without this kind of encouragement, she said, within 20 years Jewish causes could face a catastrophic loss of financial support.

"We really need the people who are involved to spread the word," she said. "This should be a grassroots thing, growing from the ground up, so more participants get involved."

For more information about the B'nai Tzedek program visit the Federation web site or contact Mehlman or 908-889-5335.