NFTY

By Max Miller-Golub, NFTY-PAR Last year, Spring Kallah was my favorite time in NFTY. It was obviously not my preferred event because all the seniors left, and although the Saturday night banquet was great, that’s not what made the weekend special. I thoroughly enjoyed Spring because of the programming. Even though Fall Kallah programming is often revered as the best, I saw Spring’s Tochnits (programs) as better and it set high standards for what I expected this year’s event to reach. This past Friday the 13th, I received the privilege of group leading the first program of this year’s Spring [...]

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Holocaust Remembrance Day is usually a time to reflect on the darkest tragedy of the Jewish people in the modern age (and some would say in all of history). The importance of having such a day is indisputable, but personally, I must say I find myself pondering the events of the Holocaust quite frequently. Whenever the temperature is freezing outside and, despite my multiple layers and warm clothing, I still feel cold, I can’t help but wonder how in the name of God people could survive the harsh European winter with only a thin piece of cloth covering their bodies. [...]

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By Rabbi Lester Polonsky, NFTY and TIFTY Alumni Through the purple haze of the turbulent 1960′s an intangible bond was formed among members of TIFTY. Temple Tifereth Israel of Malden, Massachusetts became the center of our Jewish and social lives. As a Reform congregation, Temple Tifereth Israel created the connection to the NFTY network as we became actively involved in NEFTY, the New England region. Regional events such as dances and conclaves provided unique opportunities to discuss common concerns with other Reform Jewish youth in the metropolitan Boston area. The new music of Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel , and Peter, [...]

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Originally posted on the URJ Henry S. Jacobs blog. Camp Dream Street is a week-long residential camp program for children with physical disabilities. The camp is sponsored by the Henry S. Jacobs Camp, and counselors for the camp are drawn from the teen members of NFTY’s Southern Region. Could I Really Make This Work? by Barrie Bauman Barrie grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas. She is an alumnus of URJ Henry S. Jacobs Camp and NFTY Southern. Barrie received her Doctorate in Physical Therapy at Washington University in St. Louis and is a pediatric physical therapist at Saint Louis Children’s [...]

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By Lillie Benowitz, NFTY-Northern Social Action Vice-President What is genocide? “The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines and of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: (a)    Killing members of the group. (b)    Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group. (c)    Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part. (d)   Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group. (e)   Forcibly transferring [...]

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As the school year comes to an end, there are hundreds of NFTYites who will be graduating and taking their Judaic leadership to the next big thing. Whether that is Hillel at a University campus, some form of religious education or forming one’s own religious identity, there will most definitely be a transition period.

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