Zoe Baruch

Posted on June 21, 2013

Zoe Baruch – Upstate NY NCSY

I started NCSY and didn’t think much about it. It was a way for me to hang out with my friends and learn some Jewish stuff. As the conventions went by and my older brother got more involved, I realized that NCSY was a lot more to me than I originally thought it was. When I went to conventions and NCSY events I wanted to be at the learning and wanted to do more learning when the scheduled learning was done. I found myself searching for something more. At this point, it was 2011, and I was in 10th grade. I was introduced to an NCSY summer program TJJA (The Jerusalem Journey Ambassadors) by my regional director Marc Fein. I didn’t think I would go on the program at first, but then I thought more and more about it and decided to go.

TJJA was a major event in my Jewish growth. I continued deepening the love I had for davening and decided from that point on, even though I was a very slow Hebrew reader, I would finish Shemona Esrai whenever I started it. This meant standing for hours on the high holidays when Shemona Esrai was longer and missing part of breakfast on TJJA because I was still davening when everyone else was finished.

After I came back from TJJA, I furthered my growth through my Yeshiva by phone, being on Rochester Chapter Board 9th through 12th grade, and being the VP of Organization on Regional Board and President of Rochester my senior year. The advisors that I have met through NCSY have impacted me by showing me what truly living a Jewish life is all about. I am proud to say that the advisors from Upstate have become some of my best friends.

Zoe (right) takes a pre-Shabbat picture at Upstate New York's Spring Regional Convention.

Zoe (right) takes a pre-Shabbat picture at Upstate New York’s Spring Regional Convention.

It came to my senior year in high school and I was faced with a dilemma: do I go to a university like I had always planned or do I go to Israel for a year? I hadn’t even considered the possibility of going to Israel for a year until I had gone on TJJA, but now it seemed like a possibility. I talked to my advisors, my regional director, my siblings. I made lists, wrote down the pros and cons and finally decided that I wanted to further my Jewish education and the best way to do that was by going to Israel for a year. That is when I decided to go to Machon Ma’ayan, a seminary in Israel, after high school. That decision would not have even been a discussion if it hadn’t been for the influence that the people in NCSY have had on me. The kindness and sincerity that every person in NCSY has shown me impacted me and without NCSY I would not be the person I am today and I would definitely not be going to Israel next year. Thank you to everyone that has been a part of my journey. If you are still in NCSY, remember that NCSY is your family and will help you grow as a person and as a Jew.