NCSY's Honesty Problem

The Orthodox Union's student outreach/missionary/"kiruv" arm just can't seem to tell the truth – especially when its trying to convert non-Orthodox kids to Orthodoxy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exclusive: As NCSY And The JSU Part Ways, NCSY Moves To Keep The JSU Name To Further Its Deceptive Public School Missionary Work
by David Kelsey • Special to FailedMessiah.com

The National Council of Synagogue Youth (NCSY), the Orthodox Union's youth outreach arm, had disproportionate power and presence in the Jewish Student Union (JSU), so disproportionate that it had near-absolute control over the organization.

JSU clubs and chapters are allowed to operate within the public school system based on JSU's claim that it is a cultural, rather than a religious, organization – something we have long argued is false.

NCSY used JSU to do what can only be described as religious missionary activity. True, that religious missionary activity was directed at non-Orthodox Jews. But it is religious missionary activity nonetheless.

The JSU and NCSY have consistently denied that its combined purpose was to recruit non-Orthodox students into Orthodoxy and NCSY.

But NCSY and the JSU are now parting ways, and an official email sent to students and parents to announce this change admits what we have reported for years – JSU was little more than a front for NCSY, and NCSY's financial and other support for JSU was based soley on JSU's ability to deliver recruits for NCSY:

Historically, JSU has had many community partners in seeing this vision to fruition – but none more prominent than NCSY, the Orthodox Union’s wing of teen outreach. In a partnership that saw JSU provide oversight (to ensure standards of programming diversity and excellence were being met in a public school environment) and NCSY provide staff and some resources (to run programs), clubs operated successfully for quite some time. The tremendous investment of resources and time from NCSY to this effort cannot be understated.

However, as the success of JSU grew, local and national leadership became even more focused on creating a pluralistic organization: on our staff, on our board, and in our school programming. As demonstrated by our broad spectrum of community partners in staffing and overseeing JSU clubs across the country, our organization and leadership has never been committed to any specific religious, cultural or political agendas. As this shift occurred, NCSY’s support of this model dwindled considerably as a result of clubs not recruiting a “fair share” of teens to NCSY programs.

From an organizational perspective, our management’s commitment to a non-denominational, non-religious program in the public schools is absolutely non-negotiable. As a result, unfortunately, our organization and NCSY are no longer jointly working together in Chicago or across the country.

In other words, when JSU got enough money to function without NCSY, it broadened its programs, including many more non-Orthodox and secular programs in its mix while at the same time removing NCSY partisans from positions of authority in JSU. In response to this, NCSY pulled its funding from JSU. NCSY was never involved for "cultural" reasons – it funded JSU to get access to non-Orthodox Jewsih kids it would never otherwise have had access to. And it used that access to try to convert them to Orthodoxy.

The NCSY/JSU split is cause for celebration for those concerned about separation of religion and state (in this case, separation of NCSY missionary activity from public schools), and for those who insist missionary groups of all denominations and religions act with honesty rather than with deceit. But NCSY is still behaving badly.

NCSY wants to continue to operate clubs in the public school system, still under the guise of promoting Jewish "culture." To do this it intends to keep the JSU name for itself, despite reportedly promising JSU's non-NCSY leadership that it would not do this. (See below.)

NCSY brass insists its primary interests are the boosting of "Jewish identity" and Israel advocacy.

But their own internal videos and documents demonstrate this is not so.

When JSU public school clubs began, NCSY noted the importance of the "success" of the public school club prototype, because it convinced young secular Jews to give up college education at the best schools in the country in favor of yeshiva study or enrolling in dual curriculum 'Jewish' colleges like Touro College, which emphasize Jewish religious studies and which were much lower ranked. (Until recently, these recruits were not sent to Yeshiva University for reasons beyond the scope of this article.)

Many club members ended up turning down the finest universities in the nation, including Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Boston University, Brandeis, New York University and other esteemed institutions of higher learning in order to engage in some genuine “higher learning.” Some of us went to study at Ohr Somayach or Kol Yaakov in Monsey, New York. One member deferred Harvard for a few years, ultimately becoming one of the metzuyanim [star students] of the Mir Yeshiva kollel in Yerushalayim (and undoubtedly left someone in the admissions office in Cambridge scratching his head). Two club members went to Neve Yerushalayim College [for Women] in Jerusalem. In truth, deciding to defer college in order to further our Jewish education was the proper application of the Stuyvesant school motto, “Pro scientia atque sapientia” (For knowledge and wisdom).

What is so unnerving about NCSY's internal boasts of deceptively recruiting non-Orthodox kids and sending them to haredi institutions is that the OU's own constituency would never want that for their own children.

But for non-Orthodox teens, it's okay to make them poor and ill-educated. It's okay to destroy their ambition. It's okay to make them second class citizens. It's okay to render them b'nai niddah. Its all okay, including the deception used to make it happen, as long as they turn out frum, Orthodox.

It should be noted that Brad Sugar and Susan Holzman Wachsstock deserve credit for extricating the JSU from NCSY's hands. It should also be considered that NCSY's head, Rabbi Steven Burg, has made serious efforts to add Modern Orthodox options after decades of NCSY's complacency in steering public school teens to either black hat institutions and the uncompetitive Touro College. Nevertheless, NCSY still intends to deceive:

The organization formerly known as Jewish Student Union will now be operating as Jewish Student Connection (JSC). The intent of this process was to retire the name Jewish Student Union altogether, and early discussions with NCSY regarding our parting indicated that they too would retire the name so that there would not be confusion in the marketplace. It has come to our attention that NCSY may continue to use the organizational name “JSU,” even after this split has occurred. Thus, we wanted to make sure you were aware that any clubs bearing that name, or any support to an organization bearing that name in Chicago, will go directly to the Orthodox Union

If you are a prior (or future!) financial supporter of the organization previously known as Jewish Student Union, now known as Jewish Student Connection, please note that support made out to Jewish Student Union may be assumed to be for the NCSY run clubs.

You can't take the deceit out of NCSY, it seems. Non-Orthodox Jewish students everywhere – and their families – beware.

Comments

[Jake]

Shmarya
Very interesting article.
But, you left me dangling.

Why didn't they direct kids to YUs Baal tshuva program that use to be called JSS?
Perhaps another post on the issue.

Thanks

Jake

[ah-pee-chorus]

kiruv is a slimey business. the ends justify the means. thats why i prefer 'richuk'. i can be completely truthful.

[SkepticalYid]

Posted by: ah-pee-chorus | June 29, 2012 at 02:14 PM

Richuk? That's a good one, apc. Very funny!!

[Sarek]

Gee, when I think of what I missed not having these organizations in my public school. NOT!

But I see my old high school has a JSU now. Their self-description sounds fine. They claim they're non-denominational. I would (perhaps naively) think any hint of orthodoxy would cause most non-Orthodox kids to run like hell in the opposite direction.

[ah-pee-chorus]

: SkepticalYid -

thnx!!

[Get a clue]

The only malcontent who hates kiruv orgs more than Shmarya is Kelsey. And this piece is what is dishonest. I don't even know where to start. Maybe the richuk comment from the self proclaimed heretic apc is a good place. I have read him in action and see how he will twist things to fit his own agenda. All three of you are in the alternate universe where you do all you accuse kiruv orgs of and worse.

It's interesting to see Kelsey tackle the Ben Nidah angle which is calculated to scare the bejeezus of those contemplating frumkeit. You are full of it. The yeshiva world does not have a problem with it. Some of the biggest name roshei yeshiva took baalei teshuva as sons in law. The chassidish world is split on it.

The link to Kelsey is full of completely flawed analysis. The mother did not have to go swimming in the nude or with a very loose fitting bathing suit. Mikvahs do not allow that only because of stringency.

I would offer that perhaps the only time it is a problem is when you see dropouts from the system who display the sort of terrible behaviour that leads someone to pen this sort of vicious poison

[Get a clue]

I hate to break it to you but secular Jews will mostly ignore you because kiruv groups are often the only place on campus to find Jewish camaraderie. You're just pishing in the wind with your negative fantasy that you can convince everyone to think like you

And judging from the posts in the last 12 hours that are even more sardonic than usual, you must have had a rough night

[itchiemayer]

One thing I can agree with is that a lot of very intelligent Jews are losing out on a superior education. No matter how much parents of Touro and students of Touro try to act like their school is a good one, it doesn't change the facts on the ground.

This problem is there with regard to ba'alei teshuvas and with a lot of centrist orthodox kids who want the traditional yeshivos over YU. For some reason, in the orthodox world except for the leftists, traditional yeshivos are considered "sexier".

I'm a YU/Stern parent and quite proud of that fact.

[Mike]

when its trying to convert non-Orthodox kids to Orthodoxy.

They have their nerve!!!!

Someone should report this to the authorities and have them shut down!

[Get a clue]

Itche, some are lured by the so called "sex" appeal. For others it's because they recognise that it is very difficult to find a high level of learning in modern yeshivas. Even at YU, there is no collection of super lamdanim learning together outside of Rabbi Hershel Schechters Kollel Elyon.

[Sarek]

Get a clue: Not sure to whom you directed your 2nd post. I can assure you that outside of New York City, secular kids are just that - secular. Judaism just isn't important to them. Trust me: hardly any reform, or conservative kid (much less secular) is going to stay long in an Orthodox club if they push the orthodoxy.

In my day, reform kids hung out with the teen group at the reform temple, and conservative kids hung out with the teen group at the conservative temple. You didn't know too many kids from the other temple. [Secular kids, of course, had no temple, and therefore no group.] The only mixing of the groups occurred at the JCC. If it's the Orthodox club or nothing, they will choose "nothing" 95% of the time.

You think that if you wave a "Judaism" flag, they'll all flock. No way.

Maybe things are different in NYC, but this is the way it is in Podunk.

[Get a clue]

Mike, call the FBI! Mobilize the National Guard! Hurry!

[I_am_who_I_am_not]

If NCSY is guilty of trying to make non-orthodox teenagers orthodox, then isn't FM guilty of trying to make Orthodox Jews unorthodox? It is not a crime, as far as I know, to try to convince people to be more like you. If the point is that NCSY doesn't advertise what they are doing, is that really necessary. We all know what NCSY stands for. Similarly, we all know what FM stands against.

[Get a clue]

Sarek, you may be largely right even if off on the %.

But a kiruv org on campus will still create mystique and attraction for some completely secular students. And that is what Shmarya & Kelsey would climb mountains and go to Mars thinking they have the ability to stop it. Pretty pathetic that they will bitch like this in their desperation to undermine. With all their writhing they won't manage more than a pea size dent

[PrettyBoyFloyd]

@ GAC, your right, it is pretty funny watching Shmarya's pathetic attempts to bring down the orthodox Jewish world.

[Get a clue]

Yes, the Samson wannabe has proven himself more a Peewee Herman

Let's see if his final act is the same as well

[moshe]

heres the funniest part: thats the last we hear of jsu. ncsy literally carried jsu and now....... nu nu

[Shoshi]

Posted by: I_am_who_I_am_not | June 29, 2012 at 04:42 PM

I agree that FM makes no bones about its slant. But I disagree that everyone knows what NCSY is about, especially when it disguises itself under different banners.

[Shmarya]

If NCSY is guilty of trying to make non-orthodox teenagers orthodox, then isn't FM guilty of trying to make Orthodox Jews unorthodox? It is not a crime, as far as I know, to try to convince people to be more like you. If the point is that NCSY doesn't advertise what they are doing, is that really necessary. We all know what NCSY stands for. Similarly, we all know what FM stands against.

Posted by: I_am_who_I_am_not | June 29, 2012 at 04:42 PM

So every 15-year-old in Podunk, USA knows what NCSY is?

Of course not.

And much more to the point, do those 15-year-olds in Podunk know that JSU is an NCSY front?

They do not.

And neither do the public schools that allow JSU in.

[Get a clue]

The "Oracle" is back to defend himself. Let's see how many publications would pay him for his freelance pieces if he shared every detail about himself as full disclosure like he demands from NCSY

[Get a clue]

What's with "converting" kids within the same religion? Dishonesty is creating a fraudulent lexicon

[Shmarya]

What's with "converting" kids within the same religion? Dishonesty is creating a fraudulent lexicon

Posted by: Get a clue | June 29, 2012 at 05:29 PM

So you accept Reform and Conservative Judaism as valid forms of Judaism on par with Orthodoxy, which is also a valid form of Judaism?

Is that what you're saying?

Idiot.

[Get a clue]

Very weak argument that public schools cannot let in any group who push religion while off campus. There is no end to who else should be excluded by that token. Habitat for Humanity and the Salvation Army are also subsidiaries of orgs that missionize. And those are real missionaries in the sense that Shmarya falsely tacks on to Jewish groups

[Jake]

Anyone born of a Jewish mother is a Jew. At least that's what conservative Judaism says. Of course reform Judaism disagrees with Conservative. So per Conservative Judaism about 50% of Reform Jewish births are not Jews.

Orthodox,Conservative reform are theologically three different religions.

Most Christians believe the Jewish people were at one point or are still the covenantal people.as does Conservative judaismm.

Reform can't beleive we are a covenantal people cause there isn't necessarily a god to have a covenant with.

Ortho, Conservative,Reform,reconstructionist Renewal all one relegion?
I think not!

Note I am not saying any Jew who practices any of the above mentioned religions is not a Jew but they are defiantly not the same religions from a core theological perspective.

[DK]

Get a clue wrote,

"The chassidish world is split on it."

Split on what exactly? Split on if you can make an exception for your daughter to marry a baal teshuvah if she exhibits both her visible degenerative muscle disease AND her paranoid schizophrenia?

Here's a complaint on Beyond BT, a support group for baal teshuvahs about how it is more acceptable in a prestigious haredi circle for a prominent haredi family to marry retarded (but not Down Syndrome) men from a similar circle than a functional baal teshuah/ben niddah. I guess this is the type of "split" in mentality you are talking about, right?

http://www.beyondbt.com/2010/02/16/the-biggest-challenges-facing-baalei-teshuva/#comment-398551

[Litvish]

Why do frummiks visit FM?

Shouldn't they be sitting and learning?

If they don't like what is written here then just ignore it.

I don't care for what the Jehovah's Witnesses are writing so I don't visit their sites.

But these frummiks have some tayveh to come here when they could be doing a mitsvo like learning gemoro, making more babies, sucking the cock of a newborn boy.

[ah-pee-chorus]

I don't even know where to start. Maybe the richuk comment from the self proclaimed heretic apc is a good place. I have read him in action and see how he will twist things to fit his own agendaPosted by: Get a clue

yet youve never been able to factually debate me on anything ive posted. why is that? huh archie?

[No Light]

Litvish - they've spent too many hours in rancid mikveh water, and eating lead paint chips.

Their brains are so addled that they barely know what day it is.

They're not typing consciously, but merely banging their heads against their keyboards, as they shuckle while asking their Sky Tatte to forgive them for making eye contact with their wife.

They're the Haredi version of the 'Infinite Monkey Theorem'. If you give 1000 frumdicks access to the internet, given an infinite amount of time, one of them will eventually produce a coherent sentence.

We can but hope.

[No Light]

APC - Archie is incapable of cogent argument. He's too distracted. wanking himself raw at the thought of getting one over on Shmarya.

Sadly for him, his feverish tugging is not warranted, because he's too thick to realise that inventing twenty new screen names a day =/= being an MI5 agent.

Still it keeps him off the streets. Shmarya deserves a public service award for that alone.
.

[Lo K'darkah]

@ GAC, your right, it is pretty funny watching Shmarya's pathetic attempts to bring down the orthodox Jewish world.

Posted by: PrettyBoyFloyd | June 29, 2012 at 04:56 PM

Yes, the Samson wannabe has proven himself more a Peewee Herman
Let's see if his final act is the same as well

Posted by: Get a clue | June 29, 2012 at 04:59 PM

Voices from the dark side: You are idiots. Your great-grandchildren will be talking about Shmarya Rosenberg - and the Failed Messiah blog will be regarded as a major cultural document of early 21st century Judaism - while you they will struggle to remember. I'm not saying that to defend SR, he's perfectly capable of doing that himself, but to highlight the importance of his za'am fueled critique which many of us feel is so vital that it borders on holy (like a modern day navi). You may not like his style, but his standards demand a level of honesty that few can match. What have YOU done lately to bring the Jewish world back to the path of righteousness? You sound like a couple of whining, sad, and forgettable putzes.

[Jeff]

What have YOU done lately to bring the Jewish world back to the path of righteousness?

They think they're already on the path of righteousness. There's nothing wrong with their world; everything is just fine as it is. "Move along, folks.. nothing to see here."

[No Light]

Nice one, Lo k'darkah.

Jeff's almost certainly right, it'll fall on deaf ears, but that's their problem. Let them drown in the filthy, swirling waters of their wilful ignorance.

[ah-pee-chorus]

APC - Archie is incapable of cogent argument...... Let them drown in the filthy, swirling waters of their wilful ignorance.

Posted by: No Light

so true.

Lo K'darkah - nice...

[oooooh]

Whatever you feel about the Orthodox lifestyle versus a non-Orthodox lifestyle, I think its been proven by nursing home employees that theres a greater likelihood of aging Orthodox people having one or more children visiting regularly, in hospitals and nursing homes, than the population at large.

The Orthodox have to be doing something right.

Do the research!

[AnarchyGirl]

...theres a greater likelihood of aging Orthodox people having one or more children visiting regularly...
The Orthodox have to be doing something right.
Posted by: oooooh | June 30, 2012 at 10:30 PM

What? So now they have to be congratulated for keeping the ten commandments?

[TheXNail]

I can't say I'm entirely surprised. Truth be told, this mirrors what I have seen from the Orthodox parallels outside the faith in recent years.
Ex: When it became clear that the nuns working at a local Sisters of Charity branch were actually living up to their name and helping the poor, instead of spending all their time promoting the return to Catholic traditionalism and evangelizing, inquiries were made from the Church hierarchy and the branch was dissolved. In short, whenever the Orthodox or Fundamentalist brand is attached to a project's funding or planning, one should always assume that conversion or recruitment is the end goal.

[DK]

To be clear, we don't have to go as extreme as the mainline chassidim. And B'nai Niddasm in haredi communities are by no means needed to render baal teshuvahs second class and suspect. Rather, it is employed to justify their contempt.

[Special peace envoy]

David Kelsey, it's not fair that you isolate some rude boors as primary examples. There is no basis in halacha to hold baalei teshuva in contempt. It is against halacha and everything the Torah holds dear to do so.

[Yochanan Lavie]

There is nothing wrong with an open attempt to get people to try Orthodoxy. What is wrong is when one is not open and honest about the goal. Furthermore, chareidi Orthodoxy is not the only Orthodoxy. When I was in NCSY, if you became modern Orthodox, fine, but if you wanted a really high "madrega" they pushed chareidism on you (even if you were born MO). There is nothing wrong with learning in a yeshiva, if that's what you really want to do, but not if it causes you to forsake your secular education or avoid the draft (if you're Israeli). What I object to is intellectual dishonesty and the valorizing of the more extreme path of chareidism.

BTW: When I went to Touro in the 1980's it was a good school. I don't know much about what goes on there now, but after being in Touro in the 80s, I was able to get a doctorate at a name brand institution and compete just fine with students from other schools.

[Jeff]

When I went to Touro in the 1980's it was a good school. I don't know much about what goes on there now, but after being in Touro in the 80s, I was able to get a doctorate at a name brand institution and compete just fine with students from other schools.

That was when it was still in the city? I think it's now a place Haredim go to gain the credentials to earn a "parnassa" - accounting, etc. They do have a law school, though.

Plus it's WAY the hell out on Long Island now.

[Jeff]

David Kelsey, it's not fair that you isolate some rude boors as primary examples. There is no basis in halacha to hold baalei teshuva in contempt. It is against halacha and everything the Torah holds dear to do so.

David is right. What Halakhah says and what these people do are often two entirely different things.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Yes, Jeff, that's when it was in the city. The law school is "on the island," but it has campuses in B'klyn and Queens and some programs in Manhattan, too.

[Jeff]

Oh, that's right; it's the law school that's on the island. I went to look at it about eight, nine years ago with one of my young cousins.

[ah-pee-chorus]

YL-

since you have my email address do i need to do anything further regarding the FM assifa or shall i just await word?

[oooooh]

theres a greater likelihood of aging Orthodox people having one or more children visiting regularly...
The Orthodox have to be doing something right.
Posted by: oooooh | June 30, 2012 at 10:30 PM

What? So now they have to be congratulated for keeping the ten commandments?

No, the Orthodox are not looking for congratulations by FM folks. It serves no purpose.

Just something for the mockers out there to at least briefly consider, some of whom will have very lonely times, down the road.

[Shmarya]

Posted by: oooooh | July 01, 2012 at 11:41 PM

I spend a huge amount of time in the local Jewish nursing home over a 13-year-period.

Elderly Orthodox people with no children or living siblings got almost no visitors, even when these elderly people had been the pillars of their synagogue, making the daily minyan, driving others to shul, etc.

They languished in that nursing home alone.

The same thing is true lots of places.

Of course, if these elderly Orthodox Jews had been wealthy, the rabbis would have flocked around their beds.

If you talk to Jewish nursing home chaplains, one of the regular complaints you'll hear is that these old people are abandoned by their communities – even by their Orthodox communities.

When someone has 7 children, 70 grandchildren and a dozen or so great-grandchildren, it isn't a great accomplishment to have one or two of them visit once or twice per week.

And if you ask the ones who do visit regularly, or who care for an elderly relative at home, you'll find out that most of these children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren are nowhere to be found, except on special occasions.

I watched hasidic rabbis in a small community enter a Jewish nursing home – the only Jewish nursing home, one that existed in the same building for more than 80 years – and not know their way around, even though they had lived in this community for several decades.

Don't pat yourself on the back.

Any peer reviewed study will support what I wrote.

Those same complaints are echoed everywhere by chaplains and nursing home employees.

We have nothing to be proud of, really, past the ability to raise money and build physically nice buildings.

[Shmarya]

And I should add that those buildings were rarely built by the Orthodox, unless you go back to the turn of the 20th century, when almost all American Jews davened in Orthodox synagogues. But almost all of them were no longer Orthodox in daily practice.

[DJ]

I went to Neve for a summer during college. Not only is that place full-on wacked out nuts, but they also were deeply discouraging of my plan to leave at the end of the summer and finish my secular college education. They offered me free room, board, and food if I stayed at Neve instead.

[Jeff]

In addition to what Shmarya just said, I spent a few years on the periphery of a Modern Orthodox community. They loved to congregate on Shabbat, holidays and special occasions (weddings, bar mitzvahs, etc.,) and they'd show up with food when someone died, but in terms of being there for one another in times of real distress - not so much.

The Orthodox claim to prize community above all else, but my experience has been that they lack an understanding of the basics of appropriate communal behavior.

[Elder care]

Shmarya, let's see you cite one of those "studies"

Bais Yaakovs all have programs for volunteer work at nursing homes. And you are for sure lying that all orthodox families abandon their elderly relatives in the fashion you describe. I know from often visiting an elderly aunt who had no children and seeing other patients being visited by relatives.

You are completely dishonest just like you wrote that baloney story once about your grandfather being turned off by orthodox Jews (supposedly)

Was your grandfather already a thieving & murdering gangster at that point? You seem to have left that detail out of your baloney story, you twisted sicko

[Yochanan Lavie]

Jeff: I would like to add to what you've said. People are not immune from human nature just because they're Orthodox. If you're not in a clique, an Orthodox shul can be a lonely place. That's why I started going to a Conservative shul in the town where I used to live; the people were nicer. Also, where I live now the Modern Orthodox shul is small and intimate so there is a real sense of community. I don't think it would be there in a large shul, in a name brand community.

[Jeff]

People are not immune from human nature just because they're Orthodox.

No, certainly not.

However, if community is No. 1 on their "What We Offer and Why You Should Join Us" list, and it turns out they suck at it - what do they have? They certainly weren't going to recruit me on the merits of their theology.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Good point. But I do find a sense of community in my small MO shul, where everyone is valued, observant or not. Granted, it's an exception rather than the rule.