Where are Jewish teens on New Year’s Eve? Most attend parties and events devoid of Jewish content with highly questionable activities going on.
This year, the secular new year, Saturday night, and Chanukah all converged, so New Jersey NCSY decided to create a cool, safe, and fun event, in lieu of a New Year’s Eve bash, for Jewish teens in its region.
Jew Year’s Eve was a concert held at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, featuring high school bands from the Frisch and SAR schools; the main feature was Blue Fringe, an internationally renowned Jewish rock band.
Hundreds of teens, primarily from the Bergen County area, joined this event for a night of great music, food, and friends.
Rabbi Yaakov Glasser, Regional Director of NJ NCSY, declared, “Jew Year’s Eve was an opportunity for Jewish teens to welcome the ‘New Year’ in a safe and inspirational atmosphere. The energy and excitement at this concert is only the beginning of what New Jersey NCSY will be offering to the teens of Bergen County.”
The event was “MC’ed” by Eli Klapper. Eli and his wife, Ashley, of Teaneck, are the directors of Bergen County NCSY, a new position created to reach the hundreds of teens in the Bergen County area who are not connected to synagogue youth groups.
At the concert there was a video presentation about NCSY and its work, created by Yigal Marcus, a young new member of the New Jersey NCSY Board. The video also integrated some of the crucial themes of Chanukah into the night’s program.