Shalom, NFTY.
Sh’ma Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad!
I closed my eyes, stopped singing, and just listened. As the voices of 1,300 Jewish teenagers became one, a warmth began to grow deep within me. At that moment, I believe I felt the presence of God.
Sure, maybe if I had been to a Convention before, or if I was from a larger region, the moment wouldn’t have had such an impact on me. But, as Dean Carson, the president of a small temple youth group outside of Seattle and a member of a region whose events averaged under 100 people, it did. Partly because of my experience at Convention, and also because I’d attended Kutz the summer before, I was inspired and decided to run for President of NFTY Northwest.
Because I come from a small region, I have realized the incredible effect that North American involvement can have on someone with big dreams who needs the knowledge and inspiration to implement them. Going to Kutz and Convention gave me the asset of being a leader not only in Judaism, but in every aspect of my life. Besides that, seeing hundreds or thousands of people just like you is an incredible experience. It is an experience, however, that many NFTYites will never have.
In NFTY-Northwest, a lot of the participants are hesitant to try a North American event because they don’t see any reason to leave our family-like kallot and regional camps for Kutz or a thousand-person Convention. I, for one, went to Kutz on a whim; although I signed up knowing no one, I had one of the most incredible experiences of my life. However, not everyone is comfortable with taking such a big step. This is where NFTY, as a whole, needs to come in.
As NFTY President, I would help our entire organization reach out to smaller, less-involved regions and inspire participants to get involved on a North American level. Though it is not the easiest task to persuade a newcomer to attend Convention, spend a summer at Kutz, or learn in Israel for a semester on EIE, I believe that it is vitally important that we begin trying.
No matter how much emphasis I can place on increasing North American involvement as a whole, each person, just by encouraging at least one other, can contribute singlehandedly to NFTY’s growth. It took just one person to convince me to try NFTY, and, because of him, I stand before you as a candidate for president of the entire organization. As NFTY President, I would work hand-in-hand with regional presidents to ensure that if I, personally, cannot be that encouraging friend, they can be – or, at least, establish networks of them within their regions.
However, the “word-of-mouth” approach only goes so far. If I am elected NFTY President, I would like to begin a “Big Brother/Big Sister” program among regions. In such a system, large, highly-involved regions would be paired with one or two smaller, less-involved regions as “Brothers” or “Sisters.” With a program like this, Regional Boards could not only work together for a more personal connection between their regions, but also help each other get more involved on a North American level. Furthermore, the regions could send cards, pictures, scrapbooks, and other fun things to each other. With this pairing of regions, some new NFTYite in Northwest could realize that there’s someone just like him or her in Missouri Valley or Northeast who counts down every day between Kutz and Convention.
To further strengthen the connection between the macroscopic organization and its components, I believe that NFTY should begin online groups or mentor programs that can help to answer questions about North American events. These can be Yahoo groups, phone directories, or e-mail lists where alumni of programs like Kutz, Convention, NFTY in Israel, and EIE can give advice to potential participants. This simple connection could be the reason that a participant goes to Kutz and eventually becomes the next NFTY President.
However, reaching out to its regions is not NFTY’s only responsibility: we also need to reach upwards to Nezter Olami. A year ago, NFTY became the newest snif of this international organization. Since then, many regional participants have not seen much difference. Though NFTY is currently doing a great deal of work behind the scenes, such as organizing the North American Board’s recent trip to the Netzer Olami Veida in Jerusalem, I believe that next year is the time to kick into full gear. Just as I know we need to work to get more regional participants at North American events, we also need to work to get participants to Netzer Olami events, such as their Veida. Though I am proud of the work that our current NFTY Board is doing with Netzer, I believe that we have the potential to make even further connections.
At this year’s Netzer Veida, one of the agenda items dealt with “snif pairing” and “the NFTY Regions twinning program.” If NFTY Regions are able to correspond with Netzer snifim, the understanding between NFTY and Netzer Olami would become even greater. Also, in addition to encouraging NFTY participants to attend Netzer Olami events, I think that NFTY should work to get a large number of international Netzer Olami participants to the upcoming NFTY Convention. The more connections we can make, the stronger we can become.
I believe that a third connection which NFTY needs to strengthen is that with the Union for Reform Judaism. As the youth movement of the URJ, we need to make sure that adults understand the power we have as the ones who will replace their generation. NFTY is often at the forefront of the battle against social injustice, as well as being at the cutting edge of political knowledge. As a World Zionist Organization elections liaison for NFTY Northwest, I was just a little proud to see that many NFTYites were signing up to vote for the ARZA slate when many adults did not even know what the WZO was. One simple connection that we can make is to incorporate the Mishkan Tefillah into NFTY services so that NFTYites can become more involved participants in their own congregations.
Lastly, I would like to create a program to help temple youth groups get younger kids involved. At my synagogue, for example, the Junior Youth Group is barely in a state of function. Since those junior-high and middle-schoolers will soon be high-schoolers, it is important that we, as NFTYites, take special care to reach out to them. I remember the day I found the “coupon book” I received at my Bar Mitzvah: I saw “Free First BBYO event, Free first USY event… $10 off first NFTY event.” We always must be conscious of the messages we send, and I’m not just talking about our discount – most importantly, we need to think about how we behave as role models who will pave the way for our younger protégés’ involvement.
There are connections we can make all around us: to our regions, to Netzer, to the URJ, to those younger than us, and plenty more. If you choose me as your next NFTY North American President, I will work my hardest to ensure that these connections are made to their fullest. Most importantly, I hope that someday, somewhere, a NFTYite who may have not have otherwise gone to Convention will be able to close his or her eyes and hear over 2,000 Jewish teenagers’ voices become one.

B’shalom,

Dean Carson
NFTY North American 2006-2007 Presidential Candidate
nw-president@nfty.org