Valley NCSY introduces CALABASAS NCSY!

Valley NCSY, the 2006-07 chapter of the year, continues to grow and expand! This year West Coast NCSY is happy to announce the new Valley chapter, Calabasas NCSY. Dr. Eliezer Jones, the associate regional director, will be working with the Calabasas chapter to ensure its grows. Dr. Jones will be creating events, learning programs and Shabbat activities for the chapter. The chapter had their first board meeting this past Sunday and planned an amazing chapter kick-off weekend. November 16th, Calabasas NCSY will be hosting West Coast NCSY's popular Friday Night Lights program in Calabasas, followed by a Saturday night activity and a Sunday fishing trip on a privately rented boat. They also planned a weekly Dinner & Learning program and future events. We look forward to seeing amazing growth with Calabasas NCSY and are excited to see the continued growth of Valley NCSY and the West Coast region.

WEST COAST NCSY YEAR IS OFF TO A GREAT START!

West Coast NCSY 2007-08 has begun with a great start! We began with a trifecta weekend of Freshman/LTS Shabbaton and regional kick-off event with our largest attendance ever! The chapters have begun rolling out great events, weekly programs and are planing some great Shabbatons! We have also introduced a new membership card that has had a great response. Our website has new sections. We have a new chapter in Las Vegas, a new City Director and many new Jewish teens joining NCSY. This has started off as a great year and we expect it to only get better!

Valley NCSY is the place to be!

This past weekend was another happening weekend in the Valley! It began with their 4^th Friday Night Lights (FNL) program, an inspirational Shabbat event for Jewish teens, at a local Valley synagogue. With over 70 teens from all over the Valley, the attendees had a meaningful Friday night prayer, enjoyed a delicious meal, heard wonderful words of Torah from Danielle Finder, Valley NCSY board president, and Dr. Eliezer Jones, West Coast NCSY assistant regional director. Then the teens had a fun time at the Oneg with great treats, fun games and good friends.

The next day over 40 teens went to the home of the Valley NCSY director, Devora Lunger, and had a nice Shalosh Seudos with their friends and local advisors. If that was not enough, that night Valley NCSY had a Lag Baomer Celebration with over 80 Jewish teens. There was a fire pit, pizza, band and words of Torah about the great day. The highlight was when a local Jewish teen band, "10 seconds later", played in the open air and NCSYers got to hang out with each other, local advisors, thier chapter director, the assistant regional director and Rabbi FE Goldberg, West Coast NCSY's regional Director.

What a weekend! However, for Valley NCSY this is not an out of the ordinary weekend. Shabbat is always happening for Jewish teens in the Valley as well as the week days and nights that include learning programs, recreational events and social events! Valley NCSY has become the place to be for Jewish teens.

City NCSY FNL

We kicked off our YICC FNL with a blast joining together in an upbeat carlebach
style kabbalat shabbat! The excitement continued as close to 40 teens from all over
the Los Angeles area and even some from la Jolla sat down for a traditional Friday
night Mexican dinner. After some lively singing challah and beef fajitas we enjoyed
informal discussion about the existence of G-d. Finally it was time for desert at
rabbi Fe's house where we hung out till midnight! It was awesome and we can't wait
for the next one!  

Valley NCSY Update!

Hey everyone, hope you all had an amazing Chag, as we did!

For the second seder we were joined by public school students. Throughout Yom Tov teens from the North Hollywood community found our home to be a comfortable environment to hang out and enjoy their friends, shiurim, games, nosh and awesome deserts. On Shabbos Chol Hamoed we hosted an Oneg Shabbat at our home in honor of Nissana Boxstein's birthday.

Now that Pesach came to an end, we are once again continuing with our programs including the weekly learning program "Dinner-N-Learning" (DNL), which takes place every Monday @ Jerusalem Pizza in Tarzana, between 7-8 PM. For a ride there please call Devorah @ 818-974-3777.

We are also planning several other exciting events like our very popular Shavuos All Night Learning, which will this year be expended into different Valley communities, "Friday Night Lights" (FNL) will be traveling to another Valley Community very soon, our New York Purim Reunion is being arranged, Stay tuned for more info.

Last but not least, "SPRING REGIONAL fever is in the air" applications are available online @ http://www.westcoastncsy.com or by calling Devorah 818-974-3777.

We want to wish good luck to all Valley NCSY alumni who were home for Pesach as they are returning to Israel to complete the year.

West Coast NCSY Pre-Peasach Carnival a Success!

Today West Coast NCSY had its first pre-Pesach carnival to give families a break from Pesach cleaning and enjoy a great Sunday afternoon together. We had a petting zoo, pony rides, music, moon bounces, slides, face painting, a live concert with Rabbi Dubin, pizza, popcorn, cotton candy and more. It was great to see so many families from the community bring their children and have such a great time! It was also great to see all the NCSYers who came to help with the carnival and make sure everything went smoothly. We were so happy to provide such a great community event and happy to see it be successful.

The Hunt for "Emotions."

West Coast NCSY’s East Bay chapter in Northern California had a very creative event last week that had all their NCSYers cycling through a wide range of emotions. West Coast NCSY runs great social events that occur almost every week somewhere in the region. The East Bay event was a scavenger hunt at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. However, this was not your grandfather’s scavenger hunt. It was a digital photo hunt with the mission of capturing different “emotions.” The NCSYers had a great time running all around the Wharf with their friends. Check out www.WestCoastNCSY.com/photos.html to see the pictures.