INSIDE:

food

health

MetatredAiRcIAVYKireiffi.

the scene

S otlight
°ices"from NBC ..

sports

travel

Gaby Tykocinski, belle Kirchick, Shira Handler and Rivka Dzodin at a recent NCSY event.

Stay-at-home local teens
will have a ball during winter break.

LONNY GOLDSMITH

Staff Writer

W

hirlyball, basketball, song and talent
contests will attract 2,000 Jewish
teens in metro Detroit later this
month.
Three of the "big four" Jewish youth groups —
B'nai B'rith Youth Organization (BBYO),
National Conference of Synagogue Youth
(NCSY) and United Synagogue Youth (USY) —

have at least part of the teens' vacation planned
for them. National Federation of Temple Youth
(NFTY) won't have its convention until January.
Of the three, only BBYO will remain local,
holding its Regional Convention mostly in the
friendly confines of the Kahn Jewish Community
Center in West Bloomfield. NCSY's National
Convention will tour New York City before head-
ing to New Jersey, and USY will be in Chicago
for an International Convention.
Common to all three conferences is that they

will involve a large number of Jewish teens gath-
ered together ov:r an extended period of time,
and all are social events that offer friends a chance
to get together. It's the differences between the
three conventions that are striking.
The most religiously relaxed of the three con-
ventions, BBYO's Regional Convention is a
chance for boys' chapters (AZA) and girls' chap-
ters (BBG) to compete against each other for the
title of "Most Distinguished Chapter."
Competitions range from basketball for the
boys, volleyball for the girls, swimming and track.
Non-sporting competitions include the board
game challenge, best cheer, best banner, best song
and storytelling.
"The competition is a reason that everyone
goes, but not the main reason," according to Nick