North American Federation of Temple Youth

The North American Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY) is the organized youth movement of Reform Judaism in North America. Funded and supported by the Union for Reform Judaism, NFTY exists to supplement and support Reform youth groups at the synagogue level. Nearly 500 such groups affiliate themselves with the organization, comprising over 10,000 youth members.

NFTY is itself affiliated with Netzer Olami, the international association of Reform youth movements. This decision was formalized at the biennial NFTY Convention in Los Angeles, California in February 2005.

Structure

NFTY is divided into three levels: Temple Youth Group (TYG), Regional, and North American. At each level, authority is divided between elected youth boards and supervisors employed by the URJ.

TYG level: Individual youth groups affiliated with Reform congregations are the foundation of NFTY. TYGs are youth-run and offer participants educational, social, and religious programs. Each TYG has an executive board and an adult advisor appointed by the congregation. While the board structure is at the direction of each group, most are modeled after the regional or international board.

Regional level: NFTY is divided into nineteen regions which hold events to bring together different TYGs based on geographical distribution. NFTY-NE (Northeast), the most populated region, includes 72 TYGs and over 1200 members. Each region has an elected executive board, who coordinate the efforts of their TYG counterparts and provide support to regional events. There is also an adult Regional Director who supervises the executive board and liases with TYG advisors. Note that until 2001, NFTY-SAR and NFTY-STR comprised one region, known as NFTY-SER. The regions still work together to run certain social action projects.

The regions are:

• NFTY-CAR: Chicago Area Region
• NFTY-CWR: Central West Region
• NFTY-GER: Garden-Empire Region
• NFTY-MAR: Mid-Atlantic Region
• NFTY-MI: Michigan
• NFTY-MoV: Missouri Valley
• NFTY-NAR: New York Area Region
• NFTY-NE: Northeast
• NFTY-NEL: Northeast Lakes
• NFTY-NO: Northern
• NFTY-NW: Northwest
• NFTY-OV: Ohio Valley
• NFTY-PAR: Pennsylvania Area Region
• NFTY-SAR: Southern Area Region
• NFTY-SO: Southern
• NFTY-SoCal: Southern California
• NFTY-STR: Southern Tropical Region
• NFTY-SW: Southwest
• NFTY-TOR: Texas-Oklahoma Region

North American level: A North American executive is elected each year to establish general policy and themes for the organization as a whole. Three international gatherings are held: NFTY Convention (held every other year and open to all members) Mechina (held in the summer for regional executive board training), and Mid-year Boards (held in non-Convention years for regional executive boards). The URJ Kutz Camp in Warwick, NY is NFTY's Leadership Training Institute and educates Reform Jewish leaders of today and tomorrow.

NFTY Convention

NFTY Convention is a biennial convention where several hundred (upwards of 1500) teenagers travel to a hotel and experience 4 days of social, educational, charitable, and religious programming. The conventions also feature competitions in music, art, and oratory. Each convention is held in conjunction with the URJ Youth Workers Conference and a plenary session for regional board members.

Year	Theme	Location
2005	"Picture Yourself in History: North American Judaism's Next 350 Years"	Los Angeles, California
2003	"My Heart Is In The East"	Washington, DC
2001	"?"	Los Angeles, California

External links

• NFTY (http://www.nfty.org/)
• Union for Reform Judaism (http://www.urj.org/)
• URJ Kutz Camp (http://www.kutzcamp.org)