Summer 2014

We had a fantastic day today here in Chispin!
Our morning and afternoon were filled with inspiring chaburas from our madrichot and classes from our fabulous teachers, followed by awesome activities like cake decorating, kickboxing, soccer, softball, tie dying, choir and more!

We were privileged to hear from Rav Natanel Lebowitz, assistant director of NCSY Kollel and Rebbi at Yeshivat Lev HaTorah, as our guest speaker.

For the night activity we were put up to the challenge of measuring various items over our campus in bananas. Can you guess how many bananas long the door of the shul is?!

Night activity was followed by an exhilarating basketball game vs. Sulam. Our girls showed tons of ruach and achdus as we cheered for our rocking Michlelet baskbetball team!

More fun to come tomorrow!

Sarah Alt is from Buffalo, NY. She attended Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts, and then studied in Israel at Machon Maayan. Following her year in Israel she attended Stern College for Women where she studied Jewish Studies and Music. Sarah has been involved in NCSY for many years, and this summer on Michlelet will be her fourth summer with NCSY.

The NCSYers in Sarah’s chaburah are Yael Nissel (Monsey, NY), Tali Weisinger (Teaneck, NJ), Esther Morrill (Ottawa, Ontario), Hannah Warso (Chicago, IL).

Sarah’s chaburah is titled “Lessons from our leaders in Tanach.” The chaburah focuses on different lessons we can learn from the decisions made by our leaders and how we can incorporate these lessons into our lives. Many of the chaburas analyze Jewish leadership and aim to enable each NCSYer to discover how they can be a leader in their own community. Some of the topics include: responsibility for your fellow Jew, humility, learning how to fail, power of speech and learning to believe in yourself.

If you could meet anyone from Tanach who would it be and why?
Yael Nissel: “I want to meet Avraham Avinu so that I can learn how he discovered Hashem and understand the life style of his generation.”
Tali Weisinger: “I would want to meet Yosef. He was put in a situation where he was bound to fail. He overcame it with the teachings of his father just like my parents instill good values in me. I would want to understand how he rose above them all and became Yosef HaTzadik.”
Esther Morrill: “I would want to meet Esther because she is my namesake and she is a big female leader for the Jewish people.”
Hannah Warso: “If I could meet anyone in Tanach I would want to meet Chana Haneviah. I think she is one of the most inspirational women in Tanach. I feel that I can relate to her the most because of her Tefillah.”

We had an unbelievable day filled with Torah and chesed on Michlelet!
After a morning filled with incredible learning and amazing activities we enjoyed a yummy catered pasta and salad lunch before getting to work on our special chesed project of preparing care packages for chayalim filled with towels, socks, soap, treats, and handwritten notes expressing our hakaras hatov for all their hard work and dedication. After completing the packages, we separated into groups and visited 3 different army bases up north where we were able to get a tour of each base and present our packages to the soldiers. After visiting the army bases we traveled to a beautiful park where we were treated to a delicious shwarma dinner!
Upon returning to Chispin for the night we had a special kumzitz where we recited tehillim, sang songs, and heard beautiful words of inspiration from some of our madrichot, all geared to get us in the right mindset of ahavas yisrael and achdus among our fellow members of klal yisrael during a difficult time.
It was a truly special and meaningful day here on Michlelet!

Elana Kaminetsky is from Boca Raton, Florida and attended Weinbaum Yeshiva High School. She then spent a year in Michlalah and is now a Junior in Stern College majoring in Math, but she has a secret passion for neuroscience. Elana spent one summer on Michlelet as a camper and is excited to be back as a madricha.

The girls in Elana’s Chabura are Elisheva Muskat (Oceanside, NY), Rebecca Russo (Riverdale, NY), Atara Huberfeld (Lawrence, NY), and Eliana Antosofsky (Teaneck, NJ).

Elana’s Chabura topic is “Emotions in Tanach.” After outlining and defining the emotion according to psychology and our general knowledge/experience, the girls delve into different stories and places in Tanach that discuss the emotion. With the help of mefarshim and other sources, they come out with an overarching lesson about the emotion. The goal of the chabura is to attain a greater appreciation for Tanach and the personal lessons that can come out if it.

Despite the change in location and schedule, we have been having an amazing time so far here in the North. What has been your favorite part?

Elisheva: “Everything has been awesome but if I had to pick one thing- hands down the schnitzel.”

Rebecca: “I really enjoyed all of the tiyulim we have done this summer but one specific trip I enjoyed was the raft building and Kfar Kedem. The raft building brought every group closer as we learned the importance of every individual. In Kfar Kedem we got to experience what life was like in Talmudic times.”

Atara: “If I had to pick just one aspect of our stay here, it would probably be the carnival we made for the children of חספין. The pure joy on the faces of the children and mothers alike was enough to fuel a love of חסד in me for a lifetime.”

Eliana: “I can’t say a favorite- I love it all. Even under the current circumstances, the camp has done an amazing job finding awesome activities to do.”

Talia Molotsky is a loud and proud Chicagoan. She went to ICJA, then spent her seminary year at Michlelet Mevaseret Yerushalayim and is now a Junior at Stern College. During the year Talia served as an Advisor for both New York and Midwest NCSY, and can’t wait to spend her first summer on an NCSY Program with Michlelet!

The NCSYers in Talia’s Chabura are Rivka Lichtenstein (Teaneck, NJ); Davida Respler (Teaneck, NJ); and Eli Sharvit (West Hempstead, NJ).

Talia’s Chabura is called “Disney and Torah: Finding the Real Magic.” By comparing Disney story lines to stories in Tanach, the goal is to make learning Tanach more accessible both physically, through skill building, and emotionally/spiritually by looking at the rich stories in Tanach through a new lens. Many Disney plots are actually very similar to stories in Tanach, and by shedding light onto this, she hopes the girls will leave the summer finding learning more enjoyable.

What are you most looking forward to on Michlelet?

Eli: “Going to the kotel”

Davida: “To go to Yerushalayim and daven at the Kotel”

Rivka: “Finding my bashert”

Daniella, born and raised in Dallas, TX, is currently a Junior in North Park University and plans to become a Registered Nurse.
The NCSYers in Daniella’s Chabura are Miri Fried (Woodmere, NY), Chaya Sherman (Flushing,NY), Anna Lis (Chicago, IL) and Tamar Yastrab (Woodmere, NY).

The main focus of the chabura is the the influence of the mazalot, the constellations and their effect on the Jewish Months of the year, and how we can better tap into the unique power of each month.

Miri: “In Reishit, in Chispin… who cares?! It’s Michlelet wherever we are! And what’s more? -It’s Shana Bet! I am excited to be back doing Chessed, learning, and having fun in the best place under the sun!”
Chaya: “Michlelet feels like family”
Tamar: “Michlelet is cool and fun”
Anna: “Michlelet is where you grow with girls from all over in Torah so no matter where we stay we are at the actual campus. Michlelet is in our hearts and mindset so where we physically are staying is irrelevant.”

What an incredible 2 days it’s been on Michlelet NCSY!
We spent Friday morning visiting Kever Rambam in Teveria where we had a chance to both daven at the kever and also to visit the Rambam history center next door where we learned more about the life of the Rambam through trivia games and other activities.
Next we traveled to Nachal Kibbutzim where we enjoyed a delicious lunch catered by Cafe Cafe and a refreshing swim in the cool spring water.
Shabbos was unbelievable! We enjoyed delicious meals, beautiful zemiros, inspiring divrei Torah and shiurim, and spent lots of time bonding and hanging out with our friends.
For tonight’s activity we were broken up into groups and each had to make a promo video from Michlelet focusing on different aspects such as: friends, food, tiyulim, our fabulous staff, and more. We had a great time laughing at our friend’s videos and eating a yummy pizza dinner.

We are looking forward to another fantastic week on Michlelet NCSY! Stay tuned!
Wishing everyone a shavua tov!

Dear NCSY Michlelet Parents, amush

It is so hard to believe that I am already writing the second weekly update on Erev Shabbos to you! This week has surely flown by. It is even harder to believe that I am writing it once again from Chispin, and that we are still here. We very much hope that things will calm down and be peaceful here in Eretz Yisrael very soon.

It is remarkable, with all the changes and not being where we planned, how wonderful our week was and how smoothly it went.
Last Shabbos was absolutely amazing!! The excitement, ruach, singing and dancing over Shabbos was incredible!! You would think the girls knew each other forever. There was so much spirit!! We had shiurim, an unbelievable Tisch filled with laughter, singing, programming and more.

After our amazing, inspiring and energetic Shabbos came to an end, Michelelet celebrated with a crazy and lively Melava Malka!! Our campers and madrichot came out ready to have fun dressed up from head to toe and danced the night away! Following the dancing, we continued the Melava Malka with delicious pizza!

Sunday morning, was our first opportunity to start real chaburahs. The girls really enjoyed getting into our Michlelet Schedule. Although we do not have many of our teachers here, the girls got to learn with teachers this week. They learned with either Rabbi Benjamin Yudin, Mrs. Shanie Warman, Ora Laufer, Rabbi Josh Weinberg, Rabbi Joshy Starr or Mrs. Atara Starr. Following shiur, the girls got to learn from their madrichot chaburahs, the informal learning sessions with their madrichot (advisors.) Follow us on our blog this summer and we will continue posting Spotlights on the various Madricha Chaburot and the girls in them every few days.
Following our morning chaburahs, the girls had a choice of many diverse and exciting activities run by their madrichot. These activities included basketball, art, jump roping, Zumba and choir! They got to have fun together and let out some energy.
After lunch we traveled to the Talmudic village of Katsrin where we made clay chairs, fresh pita and learned about life in the Golan in the Talmudic era.

When the NCSYers returned back from their trip to the ancient city of Katsrin, we had dinner and then heard from our night speaker, Mrs. Aleeza Lebowitz, teacher at Tiferet Seminary. She spoke about her personal experience with a child of hers and the power of Tefilah. The girls left her speech touched and inspired.
After our speaker, they enjoyed another incredible night activity: picture scavenger hunt! The camp split up into teams and went on a scavenger hunt around campus searching high and low for many things which they had to snap a picture of and bring back to the judges! The winning team was team 2 who won free ice coffees! The girls had a great time.
Monday morning we had another wonderful morning learning with our teachers and madrichot. Afterwards, the girls got to choose from activities such as pioneering, aerobics, capture the flag and hair braiding.
Monday afternoon, we headed to the beautiful Kineret Beach. The view there is simply breathtaking. Everyone had lots of fun swimming, relaxing and cheering in the beautiful calm blue Kineret.
When we got back, we had dinner and then had the privilege of hearing from our guest speaker of the night, Rebetzin Shevy Yudin, Rebetzin of Shomrei Torah in Fair Lawn, NJ and my mother-in-law . She spoke about the importance of chessed, and how chessed has a boomerang effect; when we do for others we are the ones who come out the beneficiaries. She spoke about many personal stories and left everyone very inspired. After that, we had a hilarious night activity of Project Runway. Each team was given a theme and had to come dressed up with different criteria. They were hysterical and the night activity ended with all the girls dancing in their costumes.
Tuesday was Shiva Asar B’Tamuz. After a late wake up, we had a productive morning of learning with our teachers and madrichot. The girls are really enjoying learning Torah from and with their teachers and madrichot. Then, all the Michlelet NCSYers joined together for a program. We spent time focusing on the five reasons we fast. The girls discussed why each tragedy warranted a fast in its name and how the root of those tragedies are still challenges we face today. They took initiative coming up with ideas that we as Michlelet NCSY could work on during the course of the three weeks to enhance our growth and successfully overcome some of our nation’s greatest challenges. We were very impressed by all of their amazing ideas, and the program left the staff feeling empowered after hearing what the girls had to share!

Tuesday night, after the girls had some time to regain energy after the fast, we put the madrichot up on the stand for night activity and got to see how well the girls have been getting to know them. All of our madrichot shared fun facts/stories about themselves, and we shared them out loud while the girls guessed who it could be. They enjoyed having a “chilled out” activity that enhanced their relationship with the madrichot!
Wednesday morning, we had a normal schedule learning in shiurim and chaburahs. They then chose from activities such as basketball, choir, drama, cake decorating and kickboxing.

Wednesday afternoon we had the tremendous privilege of hosting a carnival for children from Chispin and the surrounding areas whose fathers have been called up to miluim, the reserves. Their fathers have not been home for quite a while already and their mothers very much needed a break and respite. The Michlelet NCSYers single-handedly set up and ran each booth and provided entertainment and fun for the children. Our girls were amazing. I personally got choked up watching our girls in action at the carnival, bringing happiness to these children whose fathers have not been home for quite a bit now. Not only did the children enjoy, but the mothers were so pleased and thankful. Our girls had a great time as well!
For our Night Speaker, we had the opportunity to hear from Rabbi Natan Gemedze, prince of Swaziland, who came from Tzfat to speak to us. He shared his experience of coming to Judaism from being an African Prince. His words reminded us of the honor it is to be a Jew.

Wednesday’s night activity was “revenge of the nerds”. The girls dressed up in their finest suspenders and bow ties and joined us for some fast paced trivia competitions ending off in a Michlelet spelling bee showdown! Who knew that the girls could get so excited about math problems…but they may want to work on their spelling 
Thursday was a wonderful Tiyul Day. We started off the day with raft building on the Kinneret ! The Michlelet NCSYers had to work together to combine barrels, wooden boards, rope, and other materials to make a raft. The girls had so much fun going into the Kinneret on the rafts, singing, dancing, cheering and more! Then, we went to Kfar Kedem where we heard from Menachem, a resident of Kfar Kedem, about living on this yishuv. Then we were treated to a delicious lunch, got dressed up like Avraham Avinu and the girls got to ride donkeys!! Everyone had a blast! After that, everyone learned about and made pita from scratch!
After dinner at Chispin, we had our first Thursday night Mishmar where the girls broke into groups with their madrichot and learned prepared source sheets on this week’s Parsha together. The theme they took out of it was feeling part of the Klal, of the greater Jewish Nation.
Friday morning, we had the tremendous opportunity to go daven (pray) at the Kever of the Rambam, Maimonides. We first watched a video at Michlelet, prepared by one of our madrichot about his life, and then had the privilege to daven there. How special it was to pray for ourselves, for our families, for all of Eretz Yisrael, Am Yisroel and our chayalim at such a time. From there, we went to Nachal Kibutzim where we enjoyed a delightful meal from Café Café. Following our lunch, we went into the fresh springs of water and had a great time together cooling off, playing games and spending time with each other.
We are now getting ready for our second Shabbos at Michlelet NCSY 2014. We are all pumped and super excited for our Shabbos, knowing how special it is here on Michlelet.
I hope and pray that peace reigns everywhere this Shabbos and always, and that Hashem protects all of His special children on the front lines and all over Eretz Yisrael always.
It is an honor and pleasure to spend the summer with your extraordinary daughters. We have such an amazing group this year, with such positivity and excitement and our Michlelet Family is really coming together. Please feel free to be in touch with any feedback, comments or questions you may have. You can see our weekly recap video on our website.
Good Shabbos!

Rivka Yudin
Director
Michlelet NCSY
yudinr@ncsy.org

Today we had a fantastic tiyul day up North in the beautiful Golan!
We began at the Kinneret where we split up into teams and competed to build rafts that we used to race one another. We had an awesome time singing, dancing, and cheering while floating on the Kinneret and enjoying the payoff of our hard raft building work.
From there we traveled to Kfar Kedem where we heard about life in their small knit community, dressed up like Avraham Avinu and our ancestors, rode donkeys, and even baked our own pita! We stopped off at a supermarket on the way home to stock up on snacks and necessities.
Tonight we were treated to a special mishmar where we learned about the importance of nationhood in regards to this week’s parsha.

Looking forward to another fun tiyul tomorrow and a beautiful Michlelet shabbos in Chispin!