Hot in Chile

NCSY’s Presence in South America is on Fire

One thing you should know about teenagers in Chile: don’t serve them pizza at NCSY events. “A lot of them get offended by the pizza,” explained Michael Bengio, director of NCSY Chile. “They view it as bribery.”

At 25, Bengio is the youngest regional director at NCSY. Bengio, a native of Chile who attended Yeshiva University in Manhattan, grew up in a religious family and did not have much to do with NCSY. This changed at a random Friday night dinner, when a member of New England NCSY heard him give a dvar Torah and was so impressed, she invited him to be an advisor at a New England NCSY Shabbaton.

It was love at first Shabbaton. “It was more than I could have ever imagined,” Bengio said. “I didn’t miss a single Shabbaton or activity.” In his second year as an advisor, Bengio won the coveted “Advisor of the Year” award.

After he graduated from Yeshiva University and got married, Bengio was unsure of what career he wanted to pursue. Rabbi Shimon Vinger, the founder of NCSY Chile, offered him a position at NCSY Chile. Bengio and his new wife relocated. A few months later, when Rabbi Vinger left NCSY Chile, Bengio found himself in charge of the region. At that point, Bengio explained, the popularity of NCSY Chile had waned. Bengio knew he needed to do something different.

“I’m a big fan of change,” he said. “You can’t improve if you leave things the way they are.” Bengio introduced NCSY’s havdalah services and the festive singing and dancing resonated with the NCSYers. Bengio also felt that NCSY faced a specific problem. The biggest draws for NCSY Chile were the weekly lectures given by the organization. However, as the lectures progressed and became more intensive, students would drop out.

“Here it’s very difficult to be religious; it’s social suicide,” Bengio explained. “By the end of the year, you would have two students who were religious. Next year NCSY would be uncool and no one would go.”

Bengio decided not to devote his energy to the twelfth and eleventh graders who were already dissuaded from attending NCSY. He centered his efforts on the tenth graders. He restructured the classes NCSY offers to focus on the larger questions in Judaism, such as what a person’s purpose was in the world.

“I dedicated time for them,” he said about the tenth graders. “We did fun activities; we went to Argentina and Fantasialand. I played it by ear, hoping they would spread the word that they were having a blast.”

The gambit paid off.  “Kids were happy,” he said. “Parents were happy because their kids were becoming more respectful and becoming closer to Judaism without doing much to change their lives.”

Bengio’s warm and friendly personality helped as well.  “I’m young, my wife is young; we have a cute baby,” Bengio said. “We’re normal but Orthodox. Parents don’t get so frightened when they see us.”

NCSY Chile is different than other regions. Because of strong Saturday youth programming, it is almost impossible for Bengio to hold Shabbatons. Instead he invited teens and their families over for long Friday night meals.

By the end of the year, NCSY Chile had 100 teens. Lectures filled the local Starbucks and Bengio began hosting events in his living room. Bengio also reached out to the local Orthodox school and began giving a shiur there once a week.

However, the rapid growth came at a cost. The next year, due to community infighting, Bengio saw his numbers decrease until only 40 teenagers were attending NCSY programming. Bengio, not one to give up easily, attended NCSY’s annual staff conference. He met with the leading advisors and regional directors and refocused his approach.

“Rabbi Israel Lashak, director of Southwest NCSY, told me he had a JSU of three students and those were the students he was most close with,” Bengio said. “I liked the idea. If you have small groups, the teens know they’re important to the group. And once you have a small group, you can become close.”

Bengio opened up more classes, each for a small number of students.  He recruited four other advisors to launch their own classes; he dubbed the effort “NCSY Inspire.” Because of NCSY Chile’s prior success, Bengio was also able to pick advisors who had felt the effects of NCSY firsthand. “NCSY Chile allows you to learn more about your Judaism,” said Karen Sabah, one of NCSY Chile’s advisors and a former NCSYer. “Beyond that, it helps you grow as a person in order to improve yourself and help others.”

NCSY Chile quickly rebounded. At the start of this year, Bengio had 75 NCSYers.

Bengio also gets strong support from the international NCSY office, through weekly phone calls with Keevy Fried, NCSY’s associate international director. “Kiruv isn’t just for North America,” explained Fried. “Assimilation is an international concern for the Jewish people. What NCSY does works no matter where you are and Bengio’s success is a testament to that.”

Alan Herzberg, one of NCSY Chile’s local donors, explained why he supports the organization. “NCSY Chile is all about getting kids to make the decision of having Jewish grandchildren,” he said. “In a community as heavily assimilated as ours this cannot be taken for granted. NCSY proves that Judaism can not only be cool, but it also makes a lot of sense.”

Mitch Aeder, whose wife is South American, supports the region from his home in Queens, NY.

“The Chilean Jewish community is an anomaly,” he explained via email. “On one hand, there is a powerful Jewish social culture, and there is a large network of popular secular Jewish youth groups. On the other hand, the community is largely Jewishly illiterate, and intermarriage is rampant. With NCSY for the teens and Aish Hatorah for the collegiates, there now is a path for the future of the Jewish community in Chile.”

NCSY Chile also received its first permanent home. Bengio’s parents bought a complex in an apartment building and dedicated part of it to NCSY. NCSY Chile has already woven itself into the fabric of Jewish life in Chile.

“NCSY is a piece of the puzzle; when you take it out, it all crumbles down,” said Bengio.