My name is Sasha Yevelev, and I am the creative director and lead photographer at Bay Mitzvah.

My family immigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area from the USSR over 30 years ago. Before we came to the USA, I didn’t even know I was Jewish. My parents wanted to keep me safe from the vicious anti-semitism they experienced, and so they hid my Jewish heritage. But once we stepped off the plane in San Jose, CA, my parents all they could to help me discover and embrace my Jewish identity. I learned about the tragedy that befell my ancestors in the Holocaust, and I gained an appreciation for the surviving patriarchs and matriarchs of my family. I attended Hebrew school at Congregation Beth David in Saratoga, and I was the first person in my family to have a Bar Mitzvah. I remember how proud my parents were on that day. In high school, I was a member of BBYO, in the Morris Adler AZA #1855 chapter. I was selected to be a fellow in the exclusive Teen Fellowship Program, attended summer camp at Young Judea West, traveled to Israel as a teenager through the Koret Program, and worked as a camp counselor at Camp Tel Yehudah in upstate New York. In college at UC Berkeley, I was active in Hillel and the pro-Israel student movement. We stood up to the vicious rhetoric against Israel and Jews on campus, and opened constructive dialogue with our fellow Arab and Palestinian students. I continue to be involved in the Jewish community through my support of the Hebrew Free Loan Association, as well as my work in photography and video, documenting many events in the Jewish lifecycle. My oldest son attends Camp Tawonga, and I plan to enroll all three of my boys in their Bar Mitzvah Program.