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National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY) is an Modern Orthodox Jewish youth group sponsored by the Orthodox Union. Founded in 1954, it has thousands of members in the United States, Canada, Israel, Chile, and Ukraine. Its slogan is Inspiring the Jewish Future. NCSY is directly supervised by the Orthodox Union's Youth Commission chaired by Martin Nachimson of California.

History

NCSY is the organizational successor to the National Union of Orthodox Jewish Youth, established in 1942 as a denominational youth movement similar to a synagogue men's club or sisterhood. Over time, its emphasis moved to outreach and teaching religious behaviors to adolescents.

Though outreach to public school youth was started by Chabad in the 1930s, the Torah Leadership Seminar, created in 1954 by DCS of Yeshiva University under Dr Abraham Stern, developed the Shabbaton model (for more details see Baal teshuva).

In 1959, NCSY hired Rabbi Pinchas Stolper as the first National Director.

In , NCSY established its first summer program, the Israel Summer Institute for Jewish teens. Rabbi Stolper assisted NCSY in expanding internationally into Canada, Israel, Chile, and Ukraine.

Organization

NCSY is divided into geographic regions throughout North America. They are New England, Upper New York, New York, Long Island, New Jersey, Atlantic Seaboard, Central East, Southern, South Florida, Greater Midwest, Southwest, West Coast, Northwest, and Canada. Additionally, NCSY runs programming branches Israel and now, Chile and Germany.

These geographic regions are further divided into chapters, usually encompassing major cities or metropolitan areas.

NCSY's programming is divided into two age groups, "Junior" and "Senior"; these generally encompass 5th-8th grades and 9th-12th grades, respectively. Some programs span both age groups, but most programming is unique for each.

  • National Director: Rabbi Steven Burg
  • National Youth Board (Composed of representatives of the Regional Boards)
  • Regional Directors
  • Regional Advisors
  • Regional Board Members (Members are elected by peers annually. In some regions, they are appointed)
  • Chapter Advisors
  • Chapter Board Members (Members are usually elected, but there are exceptions)
  • NCSY Members


Programming

There are national events that usually occur biyearly, and mainly for leaders. There are regional events that usually occur quarterly, or biquarterly. There are chapter events that usually occur on a monthly basis, in some locations weekly.

One of NCSY's oldest and most effective program modules is the Shabbaton, a weekend-long social and educational Shabbat experience. While on Shabbatons kids are treated to skits, learning sessions and ebbing, where participants sit in a circle around the "circle guy" where they sing songs and do funny routines some of which has been passed down since the beginning of the organization.

NCSY also runs a dozen summer programs on three continents.

Social Action Through Tradition

During the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s, the Orthodox youth of NCSY strove to temper social change through religious tradition. In this period, at least one NCSY chapter took public action on this point, passing a resolution rejecting marijuana and other drugs as a violation of Jewish law. At the 1971 NCSY international convention, delegates passed resolutions in this vein, calling for members to "forge a social revolution with Torah principles."

Affiliates


References

  1. NCSY Background, Orthodox Union, 2000
  2. Marc Lee Raphel, Judaism in America (Columbia University Press, 2003), ISBN 0231120605, p. 92
  3. Barbara Binder Kadden, Teaching Jewish Lifecycle: Traditions and Activities (Behrman House, Inc, 1997), ISBN 0867050403, p. 26
  4. Saul Bernstein, The Renaissance of the Torah Jew (KTAV Publishing, 1985), pp. 274, 339
  5. ^ Etan Diamond, And I Will Dwell in Their Midst: Orthodox Jews in Suburbia (University of North Carolina Press, 2000), ISBN 0807848891, p. 104

See also

External links

National NCSY Organizations

Local NCSY Organizations

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