Summer 2018

Josh Kaufman is returning from a 1-year hiatus from NCSY Kollel for his 3rd year as a madrich. Josh grew up in Woodmere, NY and attended DRS for high school, followed by 2 years at Gush. He recently graduated from YU and will be starting Smikha in the fall.  In addition to his responsibilities as madrich, Josh is in charge of the tremendously successful night seder program and is one of the best basketball players in the camp.

In Josh’s chaburah this year are six of the best guys around: Ephraim Landa and Avraham Wolk are from Bergenfield, NJ and go to MTA. Joining them from MTA is Eitan Warburg of Teaneck NJ. Jacob Stein and Nosson Gersten make up the Midwest contingent. They live in Chicago, Il and attend Skokie Yeshiva. Last but not least is Ari Rosenbaum of Netivot Yosef, who lives in Ramat Bet Shemesh.

The chabura is spending time on and giving tons of attention to the parsha of the moadim at the end of sefer VaYikra. By combining tools, skills and insights of both Torah Shebichtav and Totah Sheval Peh they are attempting to understand Jewish holidays and reveal the critical contributions they constantly make on their Jewish lives.

Josh is looking forward to leading his crew to enormous heights this summer, and it looks like they’re already on their way.

Last Shabbat in Tzfat, Rav Alon shared with Kollel a meditation that involved feeling one’s heartbeat and taking a deep breath in order to instill a sense of perspective and composure.

The notion of going back to the heartbeat and slowing things down in order to increase focus and concentration resonates very strongly with what happened today on NCSY Kollel. Following an emotional rollercoaster of a 9 days which began with Shabbos Chazon, continued through Tisha Ba’av, through tiyul days, visits from TJJ, Yom NCSY, and culminated with the 3-day tiyul up North to Tzfat for Shabbos Nachamu, it could have been a day of disorientation and confusion. The uneasiness would have been compounded when one realizes that there are less than 2 weeks remaining in the summer.

Instead, Kollel spent today returning to its “heartbeat”: intense learning, great basketball, and the deepening of relationships amongst staff and campers. Today saw Kollel doing what it does best. Starting with an amazing morning seder, keeping the learning strong though chaburas, enjoying today’s mini-tiyul to the museum of music, and pounding in the Beis at night seder.

Today wasn’t without its own unique wrinkles. We were privileged to be visited by Rav Elchonon Adler of Yeshiva University and are expecting Rav Yonosson Saks of Lander College later. Tonight also saw the initiation of the “school-pride” All-Star games. After maariv, campers representing Frisch and SAR traveled to Reishit to figure which school had the best ballers on kollel. It was an amazing night of teamwork and friendship which the campers will never forget.

Aharon Shlomo Knobel is joining NCSY Kollel for his first summer as a madrich. Aharon was born in Miami and graduated Cooper Yeshiva High School in Memphis. After 2 years at Yeshivat Shaarei Mevasseret Zion, Aharon spent the following year at Yeshivat Birchat Hatorah in the Old City of Yerushalayim followed by a year at Yeshivat Haturim in Phoenix, AZ under Rabbi Shimon Green. Aharon uses his diverse background to relate and develop connections with all kinds of different teens.

Joining Aharon Shlomo this summer are a fantastic group of masmidim from New York. Yehuda Wilamowsky (Lawrence), Chaim Landau (Cedarhurst), and Moshe Hammer (Woodmere) all attend Yeshiva of Far Rockaway, while Eli Brody (Flushing) learn in Mesivta Yesodei Yeshurun.

Aharon Shlomo’s group will be focusing on taking fundamental concepts in Judaism that people may think they are familiar with and give them a more thorough and profound understanding of them. The Chabura aims to enhance the everyday lives of the NCSYers as Jews, by having a more meaningful understanding of what Yiddishkeit is.

A summer of learning, fun, and growth awaits! We wish the ‘Bura much hatzlacha this summer and going forward.

Yitzchak Kaminetsky is a former camper on NCSY Kollel and is returning for his second summer as a madrich. Yitz grew up in Boca Raton Florida and attended Katz (formerly Weinbaum) Yeshiva High School. Following 2 years in Torat Shraga, Yitz made his way over to YU where he just competed his first year. Despite being an “out-of-towner,” Yitzchak’s entire Chaburah is made up of kids from the NY/NJ area, but as NCSY Kollel proves so often, coming from different locations does not at all negatively affect the camaraderie among the guys.

In the Chaburah, we have Meyer Eisner (Cedurhurst), Dovid Paritsky (Woodmere), and Joshua Deutsch (Lawrence) from DRS, Binyamin Friedman (Suffern) from MTA, Yoni Herschmann (Spring Valley) from TABC, and Aryeh Singer (Cedarhurst) from MAY.

Each kid brings his own personality to the Chaburah and contributes to make an awesome and challenging learning environment with a great “chill” (especially bursting out into beautiful song by the extremely talented tone-deaf group of guys) environment.

Yitz’s chabura will be learning different Sugyot from Masechet Brachot. Yitz will be focusing on the parts of Brachot not covered during Morning Seder to give the campers a more complete vision of the Masechet.

Throughout the summer, each kid in the Chaburah is challenged to push himself as much as he can to grow as an Eved Hashem while having an unbelievable time doing so. IY”H the Chaburah will continue to create the best summer ever for each of its members!

Tonight, Kollel returned from a tiring, yet exhilarating, 3-day tiyul to the north of Israel. The madness kicked off Firday with an early davening and departure from Bet Meir. From there, Kollel diverged into two groups, one going to Teveria for watersports on the Kineret, while the other toured the artist colony and Old City of Tzfat. All the groups converged n Tzfat where Kollel booked nearly every hotel room in the city in order to fit the nearly 500 participants of our Tzfat shabbaton.

Friday night, Kollel davened by the Metzudah, a monument near the top of Tzfat which offered some amazing views and a Kabbalat Shabat experience reminiscent of the original composer of Lecha Dodi, Rav Shlomo Alkabetz. Dinner followed and then the entire camp made its way down to the bottom of Tzfat for a Tisch held in the massive Breslov Bet Medrash. The Tisch was rocking until the late hours of the night at which point the programing ended for the night.

Every chabura decided for themselves where they would daven shachris, which was followed by an early lunch. After a break, the NCSYers reconvened for chaburot and a speech from R’ Alon, a Baal teshuva from California, who spoke to the campers about the important role spirituality played in their lives. This was followed by Shaleshudos, some singing, and a special Havdalah performed by Simply Tzfat, who launched into a raucous concert immediately after to close out Day 2.

Day 3 was the “tiyul-day” part of the tiyul weekend. The campers were offered the traditional choice of multiple fantastic options to a variety of locations. Last week’s food tiyul saw a surprise sequel in the Food Tiyul Part 2: Dessert Edition which consisted of eating Belgian waffles, baking pizza, and crafting decorative chocolate. There was also the Holy Sights trip which took the campers to a series of holy places such as the keverim of the Arizal and Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. The rafting trip took the campers on a journey down the Yarden, and the Cliffs trip consisted of rappelling of some cliffs with the all the breathtaking views the Golan as to offer.

All of these trips met at the incredible AquaKef, a giant obstacle course-type complex of blow-up trampolines, slides, and climbing walls that sits atop the Kineret in Tevarya.  Everyone had a blast, and it was a fantastic way to end the tiyul day. As with all tiyul days, we will hopefully get a good night’s sleep and wake up rested and ready to get back to a packed regular schedule of learning and sports!

Today saw The Nachum Segal Network and JM in the AM visit NCSY Kollel during night seder to record its show for this upcoming morning. Nachum Segal himself spoke with NCSYers, staff, and NCSY Administrators about Kollel and all the awesomeness it provides to teens around the world. It was an amazing night which highlighted and celebrated all that NCSY Kollel has to offer.

visit http://www.nachumsegal.com/ to listen to the show once it airs.

The last day before our epic 3-day tiyul to the north of Israel was a triumphant end to a truly exceptional week on NCSY Kollel. The day got off to a quick start, with a new series of Halacha Shiurim given by Rav Sobolovsky beginning following davening. A rocking morning seder followed, which gave way to lunch.

At lunch, NCSY Kolllel was visited by the President of the OU, Mr. Moish Bane, who spoke to the staff in a very impactful Q and A moderated by Rav Turetsky. Mincha was followed by chaburas and leagues, which were more tens than ever as the end of the season approached. Many contenders and pretenders where discovered on the courts, as the pressure of late season play separated the wheat from the chaff.

Dinner was followed by the beginning of the second half of Night Seder. NCSYers attended the shiurim they selected and learnt b’chavrusa with staff. This night seder was special as Kollel received a visit of three busses from TJJ filled with public school NCSYers from across the country who came to Kollel to partake in the rocking Beis Medrash. Many TJJers and Kollelers learnt together in a heartwarming display of achdut This Night Seder also saw The Nachum Segal Network on JM in the AM visit Kollel to see the wondrous Night Seder program in action, as well as interview some of the campers. After Maariv, the Kollel started its weekly Thursday night Mishmar program, with shiurim from Rav Burg and countless Madrichim, all culminating in a shwarma snack at 11:30, which ended another fantastic day, and week, on NCSY Kollel.

Today was another incredible on-of-a-kind day on NCSY Kollel. The day started on a bittersweet note as we said goodbye to Rav Schachter and Rav Twersky. Following one final Halacha Shiur, campers and staff joined together to dance Rav Schachter out of the beis.

A regular schedule followed, with the addition of a special mini-tiyul to Machane Yehudah. Sport schedule was cut in half to accommodate the special afternoon and night, which began with a game of chabura lineup, which was won by Shimon Benaroch’s chabura. Then, at 6:30, all of Kollel boarded busses and headed to Yom NCSY, the annual gathering of all 19 NCSY Summer programs for an evening of unity and ruach.

The festivities started with a BBQ dinner, followed by video presentations and a concert featuring both Shlomo and Eitan Katz. Campers had a chance to meet, talk to, and dance with their peers from across the country on the various NCSY programs. The dancing lasted late into the night, finally wrpping up and leaving NCSY Kollel with a night they will never forget.

Today marked the 3rd full-day tiyul of the summer and it was a smashing success. 4 trips left to four wildly different locations

The first (and earliest to wake-up) was one of the most famous Kollel tiyulim, and a true favorite of the program – Darja.  NCSYers left in the early hours of the morning and experienced one of the hardest and most thrilling hikes of the summer, spanning over 8 hours. The campers were left with an experience they will always remember.

The second trip, known only as the “Food” option, contained just that.  The day began with NCSYers visiting a kibbutz to make their own cheese from scratch including milking the cows, making their own chumus, and a visit to a bread factory to make some pretzels.  The most exciting part of that tiyul, however, came when the NCSYers got to learn the halachos of shechita firsthand.  They were able to witness the live shechita of a lamb, including the entire process of making it into kosher meat, and they ended by eating the meat fresh off the grill. The NCSYers left this trip with full hearts and fuller stomachs.

Option 3 took the campers to Wadi Qelt, a gorgeous water hike with a lesser degree of difficulty than Darja, while option 4, the self-proclaimed “lazy option” saw visits to the beach and go-carting, complete with leibadik music and some improvised competitions.

The day was an incredible way to continue the outstanding line of tiyulim this summer, and it certainly energized us for the rest of the week!!