Summer 2013

Rachel (Rachi) grew up in Queens, New York and currently attends Queens College. She was a camper on Michlelet for two amazing summers and is now excited to be returning as a madricha for her third summer.

The wonderful NCSYers in Rachel’s chaburah are Nurit Esral (Teaneck, NJ(, Bracha Sabeti (Los Angeles, CA), Michal Ambalu (Queens, NY), and Kayla Libesman (Philadelphia, PA).

Rachels’s chaburah focuses on powerful times of prayer. The first half was focused on what powerful prayer means and how one can work towards achieving it. Through concentration and preparation we understand how to make our davening more desirable to Hahsem. The second half of the summer, the chaburah will be focusing on more specific times that our chachamim tell us are powerful times to pray. This includes holidays, times of day, while performing certain mitzvot; in addition to how certain emotions effect our power in our tefilah. “ I really enjoy learning together with the wonderful girls in my chaburah, I find it inspiring to see how every girls loves to participate and add insights to our sessions.” – Rachel

“It is a great feeling to wake up every morning and learn something new that we can apply to our everyday lives” – Kayla Libesman

“it’s really great to come back for a  second summer on Michlelet and experience Israel in a totally different way. “ – Michal Ambalu

“It is really exciting when I can apply something that I learnt in my chaburah to my daily tefilah” – Nurit Esral

“Because of what we are learning in our chaburah, I find that my kavanah in my davening has really been enhanced” – Bracha Sabeti

We had a fantastic 2 day color war at NCSY Michlelet:

Green (Avraham/Chesed) VS. Purple (Yitzchak/Gevurah) VS. Blue (Yaakov/Emes)!

Our girls spent their time competing in sports, art, cheering, singing, and more!
Check out our pictures to see what we’ve been up to!
Can you guess who won?

Have a beautiful shabbos!

Ati Levin, from Queens, NY, is currently studying in Queens College. Ati is ecstatic to be spending her second summer on Michlelet NCSY with the most fantastic chabura out there!

The NCSYers in Ati’s chabura are: Tali Ginsberg (Woodmere, NY), Rachaeli Treitel (Monsey, NY), Michal Usher (Lawrence, NY), and Avigayil Wiener (Teaneck, NJ).

In Ati’s chabura we learn about different middos. Each day we focus on conquering a different middah. We acquire the skills necessary to do so, allowing us to actualize our kochos and live up to our potential.

My favorite part of Michlelet is…

Tali: “The laundry situation.”

Rachaeli: “The air conditioning.”

Michal: “The bus drivers.”

Avigayil: “The music that wakes us up in the morning.”

We were featured on the front page of the Jerusalem Post this morning in a picture from greeting the Nefesh B’Nefesh flight yesterday!

WE ARE SO PROUD OF OUR INCREDIBLE CAMPERS!

Guest speaker Rabbi Yaakov Glasser of NJ NCSY, with a special surprise at the end: COLOR WAR BREAKOUT!!!

Hadassah, from beautiful Boca Raton, FL, is currently studying in Stern College for Women, where she focuses on Judaic Studies, Mathematics, and Philosophy.  After Stern, Hadassah hopes to pursue a career in Jewish Education Administration.  She is thrilled to be a Madrichah on Michlelet NCSY this summer, as she has the privilege of teaching amazing girls every day and share her love of Torah with others.

The NCSYers in Hadassah’s Chaburah are Tziporah Fink (Riverdale, NY), Naomi Javitt (Hillside, NJ), Naomi Sara Kolsky (Chicago, IL), and Malka Marmer (Brooklyn, NY). 

The topic of Hadassah’s Chaburah is the category of blessings known as the Birchos Hoda’ah, which focus of extremely unique physical phenomena or experiences such as great oceans, rainbows, people with severe deformities, or extremely beautiful people.  In the Chaburah, we attempt to discover and explore the hashkafic significance behind the existence of these unique phenomena.

In the Chaburah, we strive for an “intellectual-textual” approach, which blends a breadth of material and traditional sources together with articles and ideas that are creatively relevant.  The goal of the Chaburah is to become more accustomed to relating all aspects of our world back to the Master Creator of all such phenomena.

Tziporah Fink: “My experience of Michlelet has given me an opportunity to learn and grow while making friendships that will last a lifetime.”

Naomi Javitt: “The learning on Michlelet has given me the opportunity to learn different topics than I am usually exposed to.  I get to explore new styles of Torah and it’s really awesome!”

Naomi Sara Kolsky: “I am so privileged to be on Michlelet this summer.  Some of my favorite aspects are the amazing speakers we have, the Shabbasos, the Tiyulim, and the Chaburahs in which we have an opportunity to learn about things that we wouldn’t learn about in a regular classroom environment.”

Malka Marmer: “Michlelet has given me the opportunity to learn and grow in a warm, friendly atmosphere with amazing Madrichot who act as great role models.  This summer has been the Best. Summer. Ever.”

Today we had an unbelievable tiyul day! We began in the wee hours of the morning with greeting the Nefesh B’Nefesh flight at the airport and from there went on tours at both Yad VaShem and Har Herzl. We capped off the day with a trip inside the nice and chilly Bar Kochba Caves. Our guest speaker tonight was Rabbi Yaakov Glasser of NJ NCSY, who SURPRISE broke our color war at the end of his speech! You can listen to it here.

Check out our fabulous pictures from today!
Stay tuned for color war action and updates!

We had the privilege of hosting TJJ Ambassador girls for 2 days on Michlelet, here is a recap of our amazing experience together!!!

We had the privilege of hosting the girls from TJJ Ambassadors for the last 2 days and it was unbelievable!
They joined us for our chaburas, classes, activities, chesed trips, and through the entire process of creating and hosting a bridal shower for the needy bride we will be making a wedding for IYH next week on Michlelet! We also heard 3 amazing guest speakers over these last 2 days: Rabbi Gotch Yudin, Rabbi Gavriel Friedman, and Mrs. Sara Leah Haber.

Check out our pictures to see how much fun we had together!

ST Schwartz, born and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, is a current student of Stern College for Women and is having an excellent time there. As of now, ST is studying Graphic Design and is involved in Sterns Drama Society and the Observer. This is ST’s second summer with Michlelet, the first when she was a Michlelet NCSYer, and is happy to report that everyday is getting even more awesome than the one before.

ST’s homeroom girls are Yael Blau (Beachwood, Ohio), Racheli Brakha (Memphis, Tennessee), Shira Gottlieb (Silver Spring, Maryland), and Eliana Nachman (Woodmere, New York)

ST’s chabura is exploring Sean Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens with a Jewish twist. We are going through each of his ideas and habits and then using sources from the Talmud, Tanach, and mussar sefarim to explain why they are these concepts will aid in being effective as well as happy.

The main goal of the chabura is to learn different ways to improve our relationship with ourselves, others and Hashem. Ultimately understanding why the habits are useful and how to implement them will hopefully make everyone involved, happier people and better Jews.

Yael: “I love Michlelet because the madrichot are always ready to listen and learn.”

Racheli: “I love that there are so many people to connect to.”

Shira: “I love Michlelet because there are always people to talk and listen to.”

Eliana: “I just love the girls here, this is really a place to strengthen your spirituality.”