NCSY
National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY) is an Orthodox Jewish youth group sponsored by the Orthodox Union. It was founded in the 1950s by Rabbi Pinchas Stolper and has grown into an organization with thousands of members in the United States, Canada and now Chile. Its slogan is Building a Jewish Tomorrow. Though still sometimes considered a Modern Orthodox organization, NCSY's leadership is now considered to be under mainstream Orthodox influence.
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.
These geographic regions are further divided into chapters, usually encompassing major cities or metropolitan areas.
NCSY's programming is divided into two age groups, "Jr" and "Sr"; these generally encompass 5th-8th grades and 9th-12th grades, respectively. Some programs span both age groups, but most programming is unique for each.
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, except NY where there are weekly meetings
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 and the NCSY invented "circle". The Circle consists of all the shabbatons participants sitting in a big circle around the "circle guy" where they sing songs and do "Shtick" including said skits some of which has been passed down since the beginning of the organization. The Circle guy has been a position that has changed hands many times over the years but varies from Region to Region with such notable names as Nissy Gertz, Daniel Lev, Ari and Gavi Hoffman.
NCSY also runs a dozen summer programs on three continents.
Organization
- National Director: Rabbi Steven Burg [1]
- 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
See also
- Orthodox Union
- KEDMA, an Orthodox college outreach group
- Orthodox Campus Coalition, a student group at several, mostly northeastern U.S. universities, for Orthodox Jewish students
- United Synagogue Youth, the youth group of Conservative Judaism
- National Federation of Temple Youth, the youth group of Reform Judaism
- Ron Ball, a popular game created at Yarchei Kallah, a winter NCSY retreat program by Central East NCSY members, Jared Anstandig and Elizabeth Traison.
External links
National NCSY Organizations
Local NCSY Organizations
- Canada
- South Bay (S.F. Bay Area)
- Har Sinai (Upstate New York)
- New England
- Ottawa
- West Coast
- Atlantic Seaboard
- Northwest
- Southwest
- New Jersey
- Central East
- Ohr Chadash (New York)
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