November 11, 2003

Following Last Summer's Great Success:

New Offerings to Highlight NCSY Summer Programs for 2004; Spain and Prague Added as Destinations

Featuring a variety of new offerings and reflecting the dramatic success of last summer's activities, the Orthodox Union's National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY) today announced its summer programs for 2004.

The programs are especially designed for teenagers looking for unique experiences through sports, touring or leadership training, combined with formal or informal Torah study. The programs feature travel to Israel, Europe and within the United States and Canada.

"We are trying to create unique and exciting educational environments," declared Rabbi Daniel Schonbuch, NCSY's National Director of Educational and Summer Programs. "We want to show young people that they can have a great time and contribute their talents in a variety of ways while being in a warm Jewish atmosphere. By encouraging leadership skills and positive Jewish values we are creating the Jewish leaders of the future."

A major national campaign has begun under Rabbi Schonbuch. He will be visiting many schools in the country in the coming months in order to promote this summer's NCSY programs.

"NCSY is unique in that it can create programs to satisfy the spiritual needs of teens, without concern for the profit-motive," declared Moshe Bane, NCSY National Chairman. "We do whatever is valuable for the young people, fashioning programs for different levels of religious observance, while always keeping in mind the enjoyment component summer requires."

NCSY's newly appointed national director, Zale Newman, a proven expert in programming and marketing, declared, "The popularity of NCSY summer programs results from 'niche' marketing. In other words, we look for specific interests on the part of our audience and create programs in response to those interests. The new programs for summer 2004 fully reflect this concept."

New for 2004 are:

• A girls' version of Volunteers for Israel;
• Jerusalem Journey, a co-ed leadership program in Israel for public high school students, for only $999;
• The Spain and Israel Adventure;
• Prague extensions on Israel Leadership Challenge, The Jerusalem Journey, Summer Kollel and Michlelet;
• Mountain climbing in the Canadian Rockies with Outward Bound;
• A trip for mothers and daughters and fathers and sons with Outward Bound.

All programs are for grades 9 to 12 unless otherwise noted.

Full program descriptions follow.

Overseas:

Volunteers For Israel debuted last year with a program that placed high school senior boys on Israel Defense Force bases performing non-military tasks. Due to the program's success it has been expanded this year to include girls to serve in various volunteer programs in Israel. Boys and girls ages sixteen to eighteen are given the opportunity to help Israel in its time of crisis by spending four weeks doing a wide range of community service.

The girls' program will include working with victims of terror and working at food banks, among other opportunities. The boys' program again spends four weeks on an army base in Israel performing daily tasks, including stuffing parachutes and the maintenance of army buildings. Each program includes Torah learning and touring aspects.

The Jerusalem Journey is a new program for public high school students who are interested in a dynamic leadership experience. Participants travel first to Prague to explore Jewish life in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. In Israel students participate in a five-point leadership challenge which includes a hike from the Kineret (Galilee) to the Mediterranean Sea; non-combat military training; a wilderness experience; and an Israel leadership seminar together with timely Torah lectures. All for only $999.

The Spain and Israel Adventure features travel to Madrid, Barcelona, Toledo, and Cordoba in Spain in order to see the sites of the Golden Age of Spanish Jewry. In Israel students visit both ancient and modern sites, float in the Dead Sea, see Safed and ride a camel in the desert. Torah learning will be an integral part of the program. (Under certain circumstances advanced college credit may be available.)

Israel Leadership Challenge is a co-ed program for day school students in which participants tour Prague for four days visiting the century's old Altneu Shul and the birthplace of the Maharal, an esteemed sixteenth century rabbi. Participants will then spend the remainder of the summer in Israel on a five-point leadership challenge plus touring famous sites. The leadership challenge includes non-military Israel Defense Force activities; volunteering in community projects; meeting people who perform extraordinary acts of chesed (kindness) along with other activities.

JOLT, Jewish Overseas Leadership Training, after experiencing a summer of unprecedented success, returns next summer with JOLT I and JOLT II for 11th-12th graders; the sections will be similar but with different itineraries. Students begin their four-week trip in Poland rediscovering the country's history of Jewish life before World War II. They then travel to Ukraine to work as counselors at the OU/NCSY Summer Camp for Jewish youngsters at Kharkov where participants teach youngsters Hebrew and help them strengthen their connection to Judaism. Before returning to the United States, JOLTers travel to Israel to visit Jerusalem and to reflect upon their experiences.

Summer Kollel is a program for boys including six weeks of intensive learning in Israel along with daily sports activities in Beit Meir located near Jerusalem; there will also be touring. Lectures will be delivered by world renowned Torah scholars including immediate past Chief Rabbi of Israel HaRav Yisroel Meir Lau. Participants this year will have the option of a four-day trip to Prague before continuing on to Israel.

Michlelet is a learning program for girls, which is situated at the Neve Yerushalyim campus in Jerusalem. During the six-week session participants intensify their commitment to Torah study. This program includes touring and sports as well as shiurim (classes) given by renowned Torah personalities, most notably Rav Herschel Schachter, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva University's RIETS rabbinical seminary. Participants this year have the option of a four-day trip to Prague before they continue on to Israel.

Yad b'Yad (Hand in Hand) is a program in Israel for students in grades 10-12 who work with their developmentally disabled peers from the OU's Yachad program. Participants work side by side with Yachad members on a kibbutz, touring the country, hiking, rafting and enjoying other activities.

In the United States and Canada:

Outward Bound will be adding three new trips this year due to its success in recent summers. Six groups, three for girls and three for boys, will experience a twenty-day adventure through Canada. This year's program will also include climbing in the Canadian Rockies along with previously offered canoeing and backpacking trips. As they explore the wilderness, participants will put what they observe into a Jewish context. Of the groups added this year, one will be for mothers and daughters and one for fathers and sons.

Yad b'Yad (Hand in Hand) provides students in grades 10-12 with a significant leadership training experience. High school students from across North America travel, learn and grow together with their peers from Yachad, an OU program for the developmentally disabled. Yad b'Yad combines leadership training seminars focusing on working with the developmentally disabled plus a Torah learning component. Participants will travel on a West Coast bus trip to Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Nevada and other West Coast sites.

Caravan West is a co-ed program for public high school students. Students travel the West coast visiting NBC Studios, the Grand Canyon, and the Museum of Jewish Tolerance in Los Angeles among other sites. Students will also participate in informal learning sessions as they travel.

Summer Experience for Girls, a four-week camp at the Golden Acres Dude Ranch in upstate New York, will help campers relax through a wide variety of sports activities in small individualized groups, plus travel to tourist sites in New York State. The girls will also increase their Jewish awareness.

Camp Sports is located on the 90-acre Ner Israel College campus in Baltimore. Here boys can spend four-weeks touring the Baltimore/Washington D.C. area, playing sports and learning.

This year for the first time, participants can register and pay online for their program. Participants who register online will receive a discount on the application fee.

For more information on NCSY summer programs, costs, and scholarship availability, go to www.ncsy.org or contact Uriel Weisz at 1-888-Tour-4-You or email summer@ou.org.

The Orthodox Union, now in its second century of service to the Jewish community of North America and beyond, is a world leader in community and synagogue services, adult education, youth work through NCSY, political action through the IPA, and advocacy for persons with disabilities through Yachad and Our Way. Its kosher supervision label, the , is the world’s most recognized kosher symbol and can be found on over 275,000 products manufactured in 68 countries around the globe.

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