'Lighting Up
The World'

Annual gathering hears how NCSY

is keeping youth Jewishly affiliated.

Findings of the Lilly survey of more
than 1,000 randomly selected NCSY
Special to the Jewish News
"alumni" included the following:
•An intermarriage rate of 2
hat better way to raise
percent
(compared to a national
funds for an organiza-
rate
of
52
percent, as found in
tion than to show its
the
1990
National
Jewish
effectiveness?
Population
Study).
Speakers frequently alluded to the
•A synagogue affiliation rate
encouraging results of a 1998 Lilly
Endowment study of NCSY (National of 92 percent (the NJPS compa-
rable rate in the general Jewish
Conference of Synagogue Youth) that
population is 38 percent).
was printed in the program for the
• Eighty-five percent of
annual NCSY Garden Champagne
NCSY
alumni have visited
Brunch June 16 at a private home in
Israel,
with
an average • of three
Southfield. The gathering heard from
times
per
respondent
(the NJPS
three current members whose stories
found 31 percent of American
reinforce NCSY's apparent success in
Jews have visited Israel).
boosting Jewish identity.
The statistics continue in a
NCSY, a North American youth
similar
vein, with dramatically
organization, was founded under the
higher
rates
of organizational
auspices of the Orthodox Union in
affiliation,
lower
divorce rates,
1959. It draws members from public
higher
birth
rates,
greater levels
schools as well as Jewish day schools.
of Jewish education and higher
In all, 30,000-40,000 Jewish high
school students, ages 14-18, join activ- levels of Jewish observance
among those who once
ities of local NCSY chapters'each year.
belonged to NCSY.
Students come for the camaraderie,
social programs, ruach (spirit) of
Shabbaton programs, conventions and NCSY Honorees
seminars. The sweetness of Torah
Rabbi Elimelech and Ruthie Goldberg
study and the strengthening of Jewish
received the NCSY's Stephen E.
identity and observance slip right in.
Levitz Memorial Award.
Rabbi Goldberg, rabbi of
Young. Israel of
Southfield, is head of the
Kids Kicking Cancer
organization. He also
directs Camp Simcha, an
international camp that
Jewish children with can-
cer attend free of charge.
Ruthie Goldberg works
with her husband.
Presenting the award
to the couple was Robert
Aronson, chief executive
officer of the Jewish
Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit.
Rabbi Goldberg,
Aronson said, is "my
Rabbi Tzali Freedman, Robert Aronson, and Rabbi
teacher and spiritual

SUSAN TAWIL

IV

Elimelech and Ruthie Goldberg

Anstandig of West Bloomfield, is
finishing her junior year at the
Jewish Academy of Metropolitan
Detroit (JAMD). She compared
NCSY to a cholent, the famous
"Shabbos stew" she tasted for the
first time when she joined a NCSY
Shabbaton more than a year ago.
The members have different Jewish
backgrounds, she explained, but
each adds his or her own special fla-
vor to the group. Forging ties
between all Jews is an important part
of what NCSY is about.
The third speaker was Elliot
Darvick of Bloomfield Hills, a
Cranbrook Schools graduate who
will be attending Washington

guide. He cares about each person,
one soul at a time."
Aronson called NCSY "an impor-
tant force ... for the future of the
Jewish people."
Accepting the award, Rabbi
Goldberg described the essence of
NCSY as "giving, loving, doing;" of
"taking [teenage] energy and lighting
up the world."
Two scholarships for a year of
study in Israel were awarded at the
brunch. Berkley High School senior
Raphael Mavashev of Oak Park
received the Lilian Saltsman
Memorial Scholarship, given by her
husband, Alex Saltsman. The Meyer
Eisenberg Memorial Scholarship was

"NCSY has given
me a path to walk
on when I go to
college; a straighter
path, a path more
meaningfully
Jewish."

— Elliot Darvick

awarded to Josh Kimmel, a senior at
West Bloomfield High School.
A highlight of the program was
"The Faces of NCSY," in which
three current NCSY members
described the youth group's impact
on them.
Yeshivat Akiva student Mikey
Skoczylas of West Bloomfield
observed, with some dismay, that in
his experience, the "coolest person"
in every group of teens is always the
least religious. That is, except in
NCSY, where "it's cool to be
Jewish," he said.
Skoczylas told how he was
inspired by his NCSY adviser's belief
in his potential, and called NCSY
the "makeh b'patish" (final hammer
blow or finishing touch) of a yeshiv-
ah education. Skoczylas will be
attending Shaarei Mevaseret
Yerushalayim in Israel.
Another NCSY member, Deborah

University in St. Louis next year. He
had never met anyone Orthodox
before he attended his first NCSY
event, he said, adding, "I found out
Orthodox kids are just like me —
people I could hang out with."
Though not himself Orthodox,
Darvick's sense of Jewish identity has
been greatly strengthened since his
involvement in NCSY.
"NCSY has given me a path to
walk on when I go to college; a
straighter path, a path more mean-
ingfully Jewish," he said. ❑

Local offices for National
Conference of Synagogue Youth
are at 15919 W. 10 Mile Road in
Southfield. For information, call
the NCSY offices, (248) 557-6279
or visit the Web site,
vvvvvv.ou.orgiNCSY

6/28

2002

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