NCSY
{{Short description|Orthodox Jewish youth group}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox organization
| name = NCSY
| logo = File:Logo_of_NCSY.jpg
| logo_size = 100px
| map =
| map_size =
| map_alt =
| map_caption =
| predecessor = Torah Leadership Seminar
| formation = {{start date and age|1954}}
| founder = Harold and Enid Boxer
| type = Jewish youth organization
| tax_id =
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| status = Subsidiary of a {{nowrap|501(c)(3)}} non-profit religious organization
| purpose =
| headquarters = 40 Rector Street, New York City, New York, United States
| location = United States, Canada, Argentina, Chile, Israel, Mexico
| coords = {{coord|40.705279812590774|-74.01396840186057|display=inline}}
| owner = Natan Cohen
| leader_title = {{nowrap|International Director}}
| leader_name = Rabbi Micah Greenland
| parent_organization = Orthodox Union
| website = {{URL|www.ncsy.org}}
| formerly = National Conference of Synagogue Youth
}}
NCSY (formerly known as the National Conference of Synagogue Youth) is a Jewish youth group under the auspices of the Orthodox Union.{{Cite web |date=April 23, 2014 |title=NCSY History |url=https://60.ncsy.org/about/ncsy-history/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502231656/https://60.ncsy.org/about/ncsy-history/ |archive-date=May 2, 2014 |access-date=April 7, 2025 |website=NCSY @ 60}}{{cite web|url=http://blogs.yu.edu/news/2009/04/02/yeshiva-college-honors-student-zev-eleff-publishes-book-on-history-of-ncsy/ |title=Yeshiva College Honors Student Zev Eleff Publishes Book on History of NCSY |author=Yeshiva University |author-link=Yeshiva University |date=April 2, 2009 |publisher=Yeshiva University |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121211132924/http://blogs.yu.edu/news/2009/04/02/yeshiva-college-honors-student-zev-eleff-publishes-book-on-history-of-ncsy/ |archive-date=December 11, 2012 |url-status=dead }} Its operations include Jewish-inspired after-school programs; summer programs in Israel, Europe, and the United States;{{Cite web|url=https://summer.ncsy.org/|title=Jewish Teen Summer Trips|language=en|access-date=2020-02-10}} weekend programming, shabbatons, retreats, and regionals; Israel advocacy training; and disaster relief missions known as chesed (kindness) trips.[http://www.ou.org/oupr/2000/comm/ncsybg.htm NCSY Background, Orthodox Union, 2000] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070410230831/http://www.ou.org/oupr/2000/comm/ncsybg.htm |date=April 10, 2007 }}{{Cite web|url=https://summer.ncsy.org/|title=Jewish Teen Summer Trips|language=en|access-date=2020-01-28}}{{Cite web|url=https://reliefmissions.ncsy.org/|title=Home|website=NCSY Relief Missions|language=en|access-date=2020-01-28}} NCSY also has an alumni organization on campuses across North America.{{Cite web|url=https://alumni.ncsy.org/|title=NCSY ALUMNI -|website=NCSY ALUMNI|access-date=2020-02-10}}
History
In 1954, following the passing of a resolution at that year's convention of the Orthodox Union, the NCSY was launched with the goal of enabling Jewish teenagers to lead fulfilling Jewish lives. The first chapter was established in Savannah in October 1955{{Cite web |last=Brenner |first=Bayla Sheva |date=March 18, 2014 |title=NCSY Turns Sixty |url=https://jewishaction.com/inside-the-ou/ncsy-turns-sixty/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220629071916/https://jewishaction.com/inside-the-ou/ncsy-turns-sixty/ |archive-date=June 29, 2022 |access-date=April 7, 2025 |website=Jewish Action |postscript=. With illustrations in flipbook format at https:// issuu.com/orthodoxunion/docs/jewish-action-spring-2014 pp. 60-64.}} but nationally the movement was disorganized because there was no professional leadership. In 1959 however Rabbi Pinchas Stolper was chosen as its first full-time national director.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dEgcAAAAMAAJ |title=Saul Bernstein, The Renaissance of the Torah Jew (KTAV Publishing, 1985), pp. 274, 339 |isbn=9780881250664 |access-date=2012-07-04|last1=Bernstein |first1=Saul |year=1985 |publisher=Ktav Publishing House }}
During the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s, the Orthodox youth of NCSY opposed social change, choosing instead to emphasize religious tradition.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OAY7wbRhHcIC&pg=PA110 |title=Etan Diamond, And I Will Dwell in Their Midst: Orthodox Jews in Suburbia (University of North Carolina Press, 2000), ISBN 0-8078-4889-1, p. 104 |date=2000-10-30 |isbn=9780807848890 |access-date=2012-07-04|last1=Diamond |first1=Etan |publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press }} 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."
According to the Orthodox sociologist Chaim Waxman, there has been an increase in Haredi influence on NCSY since 2012.{{cite web|url=http://www.jcpa.org/cjc/cjc-waxman-f05.htm |title=Winners and Losers in Denominational Memberships in the United States - Chaim I. Waxman |publisher=Jcpa.org |access-date=2012-07-04}} Waxman based this on NCSY's own sociological self-study.Nathalie Friedman, Faithful Youth: A Study of the National Conference of Synagogue Youth (New York: National Conference of Synagogue Youth, 1998).
Alumni
- David Luchins (born 1946), Touro College professor and chair of its political science department
- Jeffrey Saks (born 1969), Modern Orthodox rabbi, educator, writer, and editor
Staff
- David Bashevkin (born 1985), Modern Orthodox rabbi, writer, adjunct professor, podcast host, and NCSY Director of Education
- Steven Burg (born 1972), Orthodox rabbi, educator, Jewish communal leader, CEO of Aish, and NCSY International Director
- Aryeh Kaplan (1934–1983), Orthodox rabbi, author, and translator best known for his Living Torah edition of the Torah, and NCSY Director of Publishing
- Baruch Lanner (born 1949), former Orthodox rabbi convicted of child sexual abuse, former principal of Hillel Yeshiva High School in Ocean Township, New Jersey, and former NCSY Director of RegionsRosenblatt, Gary. [https://web.archive.org/web/20121022151448/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-79391392.html "Stolen Innocence: RABBI BARUCH LANNER, the charismatic magnet of NCSY, was revered in the Orthodox Union youth group, despite longtime reports of abuse of teens."], The Jewish Week, June 23, 2000. Accessed December 7, 2008. "Baruch Lanner is widely regarded as one of the most brilliant, dynamic and charismatic educators in Jewish life today. As director of regions of the National Conference of Synagogue Youth, an arm of the Orthodox Union, the 50-year-old rabbi has been working with and supervising teenagers for more than three decades."
- Pinchas Stolper (1931–2022), Orthodox rabbi and writer, spokesman for Jewish Orthodoxy, and NCSY National Director
- Baruch Taub, Canadian-American founding rabbi of the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto, and former NCSY National Director
See also
- United Synagogue Youth, the youth group of Conservative Judaism
- National Federation of Temple Youth, the youth movement of Reform Judaism
- Young Judaea, the pluralist Zionist youth movement of Hadassah
- BBYO, the leading non-denominational Jewish youth movement
- Bnei Akiva, the largest religious Zionist youth movement in the world
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.ncsy.org/ Official website]
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{{Organized Jewish Life in the United States}}
{{Jewish Youth and Student Organisations|state=collapsed}}
Category:Jewish youth organizations based in the United States
Category:Modern Orthodox Judaism in the United States
Category:Orthodox Jewish outreach