After a few days of pickup basketball and hockey, the opening day of leagues has finally arrived. We started off the day early to fit everything in before shabbos.

Three league periods, twenty four basketball teams, eight hockey teams. Kollel leagues are always exciting and competitive, and today was no exception.

The first hockey game of the season was an overtime thriller. Team E came back from a 2-0 deficit to tie it in the third and force the game into overtime. Team C won it on a full court slap-shot halfway through overtime. The star of the game was Yaacov Schneider who had a goal and an assist.

Basketball was also filled with exhilarating finishes. Come backs, two point wins we had it all. It should be a very competitive summer.

In between the first and second sports periods we took a break and headed to Yerushalayim, to the Meah Shearim/Geulah area.

A big thank you to our sports commissioner, Marc Poleyeff, and hockey commissioner, Ari Miller, who worked hard to have everything ready for this big day.

Have a great shabbos!

What a day! We started out with regular morning shiurim. Before lunch we had the privilege of hearing from Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt, Rav of the Riverdale Jewish Center who spoke about what being in Israel for the summer should mean to us.

Even though it was already late in the afternoon, the best was yet to come.

We packed the buses and headed to an enormous water park we where had the entire place to ourselves. There were slides, a lazy river, and a gigantic pool. If that wasn’t enough, they also had had a soccer field, multiple basketball courts, and tennis courts. The cherry on top was the soft serve ice cream that everyone received a voucher for.

And it still wasn’t over. Back in Beit Meir, the beis medrash was packed for our first optional Thursday night mishmar. At 11:30 at night there were 102 (!) people in the beis medrash going strong.

To help out the learning later in the night, shwarma was served to all those learning.

Day two of NCSY Kollel was filled with firsts: our first full day of Kollel, the first chaburas, and our first mini tiyul.

It started out with a more detailed orientation for all members of Kollel, both NCSYers and staff included.

The NCSYers met their Shiur Rebbe who will be teaching them every morning for the duration of the summer. Both the Rebbeim and the NCSYers are looking forward to spending more time together after shabbos when everyone will travel to their Rebbeim’s homes for a more informal get-together.

Our first Mini-Tiyul of the summer took place in the afternoon. Led by Yosef Ginsberg, our mini tiyul coordinator, a group of NCSYers had the opportunity to check out the Greater Beit Meir area and its views.

We traveled to the beach in Bat Yam for some relaxation. We enjoyed the refreshing water, intense games of soccer, volleyball, ultimate frisbee, and NCSYers vs. Staff football (staff won, by the way).
The day was not over yet. Back in Beit Meir the Grand opening of our canteen, Yummy’s, was held. Poppers, french fries and trivia galore. The winner of the Chabura Faceoff Challenge was Ezra Zanger’s chabura. The NCSYers in his chabura are Donny Brodsky, Avi Katz, Mordechai Lis, Yosef Mammon, and Yoni Samet.  Congratulations!

We look forward to taking the excitement from today and building on it tomorrow in the beis medresh and water park. 

The day we had been waiting for has finally arrived, NCSY Kollel 2013!

150 NCSYers with their parents packed Terminal 4 at JFK Airport. After check-in we headed to the chapel area where we were greeted by David Cutler, Director of NCSY Summer Programs, Jen Goldman, the assistant director, and literally hundreds of slices of pizza.

Even with a slight delay on the runway, we landed on schedule at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel. We loaded the buses to Beit Meir, the campus of Yeshivat Ohr Yerushalayim, our home for the next six weeks.

The first full Kollel gathering took place at 5:00 with mincha in the Beis Medresh. Rabbi Moshe Benovitz, Director of NCSY Kollel, gave a short orientation and introduced some of the talented people working with us this summer including Mike Kahn, our head Madrich, and Andrew Israeli, our Co-head Madrich.

After dinner we headed to the Old City of Yerushalayim. Our first stop was the roof of Yeshivat HaKotel with its unparalleled panoramic view of Har Habayit. Andrew Israeli spoke about the opportunity and potential that we have in front of us in the next six weeks.

 We had the special privilege of davening maariv as a group at the Kotel.

We are just two days away from the start of NCSY Kollel 2013!

The campus is shaping up and getting ready for you.

See you at the airport on Monday!

Continue to check back here throughout the summer as this will be updated more frequently as Kollel gets underway.

Check us out on Twitter and Facebook

TJJ came to Kollel for the first of 3 days today. Rav Sobolofsky opened off their visit with a welcome shiur. Listen to it above.

There are only 14 days remaining until the flight takes off from JFK. Check out the video to see what Kollel is about.

Check out the calendar below for a sneak peak of some of the awesome things planned for this summer!

Click on the calendar for a higher resolution image.

Welcome to the all new NCSY Kollel website.

We are now two weeks from the start of Kollel. Planning for this summer began more than a year ago and it is shaping up to be the best summer yet.  There are over 150 NCSYers coming from 57 cities over 3 continents with over 50 schools represented!

The website will be updated frequently with blog posts, pictures, videos, shiurim, and sports scores and standings.

Be sure to check back often and follow @NCSYKollel on Twitter and Instagram, and like us on Facebook!

NCSY Summer Programs are more than just summer trips. They’re one of the most meaningful and memorable experiences of a person’s life. NCSY runs twelve unique summer programs in the US, Israel and Europe that cater to teens with different interests and backgrounds.