National Conference of Synagogue Youth
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| Motto | Inspiring the Jewish future |
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| Headquarters | New York |
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NCSY (formerly known as the National Conference of Synagogue Youth) is an Orthodox Jewish youth group sponsored by the Orthodox Union. Founded in 1954, it has members in the United States, Canada, Israel, Chile, and formerly also in Ukraine. Its slogan is Inspiring the Jewish Future. NCSY is led by International Director Rabbi Micah Greenland and is directly supervised by the Orthodox Union's (OU) Youth Commission chaired by Avi Katz of New Jersey.
NCSY is the organizational successor to the National Union of Orthodox Jewish Youth, established in 1942 as an Orthodox youth movement similar to a synagogue men's club or sisterhood. Over time, its emphasis moved to outreach and teaching religious behaviors to adolescents.
Though outreach to public school youth was started by Chabad in the 1930s, the Torah Leadership Seminar, created in 1954 by DCS of Yeshiva University under Dr Abraham Stern, developed the Shabbaton model. There was a core of NCSY from two early founded regions Midwest Region (founded 1951) and Southern Region (founded in 1952 by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Rosenberg and Mr. Abe Rabhan of B'nai B'rith Jacob synagogue in Savannah, Georgia). In 1954, Harold and Enid Boxer donated the money to create a national organization from the already-existing Southern and Midwest Regions.
In 1959, NCSY hired Rabbi Pinchas Stolper as the first National Director.
In the 1960s there was an emphasis on NCSY Publications with many volumes written by Pinchas Stolper and then later the Aryeh Kaplan Series.They also put out the NCSY Guide to Blessings and the NCSY Bencher.
In 1962, NCSY received outstanding praise from Rabbi Meir Kahane, after his having participated as an advisor to the NCSY annual convention.
During the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s, the Orthodox youth of NCSY strove to temper social change through religious tradition. 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."
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