June 1, 2000
Rite
of Passage
NCSY Sponsors First-Ever National Conclave for Graduating Seniors
As the final year of high school
draws to a close and a year of yeshiva in Israel followed by college looms
closer, seniors throughout the country are finding themselves plagued with
sleepless nights as they ponder what the future may hold for them.
Will
I stay in touch with my friends? Who will I dorm with?
What classes will I take? For
some, there are tougher questions to contemplate. How will I deal with
being on my own in Israel for the first time, so far from home?
What will it be like observing the holidays without my family?
How will I integrate my new lifestyle with the one I was raised
with? And then the still
tougher questions when adjusting to college life. What do I do if I face
anti-Semitism on my college campus? How
will I observe the Sabbath and keep kosher?
What if I am different from everyone else?
In
response to these apprehensions, this year’s National NCSY
(National Conference of Synagogue Youth) Convention will introduce a “rite
of passage” program for graduating high school seniors to help
alleviate some of their fears. The
Conference is scheduled for Thursday-Sunday, June 22-25, at Camp Mogen
Avrohom, upstate New York. The
cost is only $95 per person.
Paul S. Glasser, National
Executive Director of the
Orthodox Union’s NCSY youth program, explained, “After forty-five
years, we concluded that it was time to
revamp NCSY’s year end event. The
leadership brainstormed and decided to create a program for seniors that
would facilitate the often confounding process of leaving the sheltered
high school environment and entering the uncharted territories of a year
of study in Israel followed by life on the college campus.”
The
conference, under the guidance of Rabbi David Kaminetsky, NCSY National
Director, will address issues such as: The challenge of successfully
balancing a double curriculum in college; how to grow successfully in a
secular university; Jewish legal (halachic)
issues in choosing a career; and “what I want to be when I grow-up”,
offering career guidance.
For
more information, or to register for the Conclave, please call Lenny
Bessler at 212-613-8352.
Since
it was founded in 1954, NCSY has
pioneered the Jewish outreach movement and today is the world’s largest
Jewish youth program. With
chapters in 39 states, 215 communities across the nation and 3 Canadian
provinces, NCSY reaches 40,000 boys and girls annually by offering 750
major educational events and programs and 10 summer camps – in the U.S.,
Israel and the Ukraine.
The Orthodox Union, now in its
second century of service to the Jewish
community of America and beyond, is the world leader in youth
work, advocacy for the disabled,
synagogue services, adult
education and political action.
Its kosher supervision
label, the
 , is the world’s most
recognized kosher symbol and can be found on over 250,000 products in 68
countries around the globe.
###
www.ou.org
Comments?
Requests? Questions?
 Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations
of America
Department of Public Relations
Sharyn Perlman, Director
Main Office:
11 Broadway, New York, NY 10004
Phone: 212-613-8321 Fax: 212-564-9058
E-mail: media@ou.org |
OUPR
Archives
Recent
statements to the press
Articles and statements from 1999
Articles and statements from 1998
|
|