Rabbi Nati Stern, of NCSY and JSU, will take a similar post in Houston
After three years in Kansas City, Rabbi Nati Stern will say goodbye to the area in June. He’ll sign on as the city director of NCSY and JSU in Houston this July.
Before coming to Kansas City, he was a campus rabbi at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. for two years. That’s where he decided he wanted to be involved in creating Jewish programming for high school students.
“The more teens were involved with Jewish life as teens, the more likely they were to be involved in campus programs when they got to university,” he said.
He got in touch with NCSY and found himself here. He became director of Kansas City NCSY and Jewish Student Union (JSU).
“We never lived in the Midwest before. I think this was the furthest west I’d been,” he said.
Though life was very different from Washington and his childhood home in Brooklyn, he embraced it.
“One of the things I noticed is people are calmer, more wholesome and very, very friendly. … People were happy I was here. The Kansas City community made me feel like I’m at home,” he said.
At that time there were four JSU clubs in the area. Now, that number has doubled. Rabbi Stern attributes the rise in part to programming he introduced over the last three years.
According to its chapter website, Kansas City NCSY and JSU aim to provide “phenomenal and innovative Jewish experiences to 6th-12th graders that are both relatable and meaningful.” The connections come through local programming and regional conventions.
Nationally, NCSY describes itself as a “world-recognized organization that has played a pivotal role in the lives of Jewish teens across the globe.” The Orthodox Union founded NCSY in 1954.
JSU is a program of NCSY. The mission of JSU is to get more Jewish teens attending public high schools to do something Jewish.
The JSU website says that, since the first four clubs were founded in Los Angeles in 2002, JSU has grown to serve more than 200 public school campuses across North America, reaching more than 12,000 teens annually.
Local parents are thrilled at Rabbi Stern’s impact, and sad to see him go.
“He’s at their level. He talks about Judaism in a relatable way,” said Laurie Goldstein, whose two sons, Josh and Mitch, have been involved in JSU. “He’s so enthusiastic—it’s contagious.”
Aimee Bernstein, who also has two sons, echoed Goldstein’s sentiments.
“They meet almost once a week and talk about life and everything just through a Jewish lens. It’s giving (my son) Max so much knowledge and confidence. Nati is so awesome for our young people. He’s definitely going to be missed when he leaves,” Bernstein said.
During this pandemic year, Rabbi Stern has gotten creative in his outreach for JSU. Although the JSU clubs met virtually, he wanted something more.
His Unboxed program saw him working with the various presidents of the JSU clubs around town to make free Jewish-themed boxes every month delivered to each member’s home. Boxes contained food, educational materials, arts and crafts and often holiday-themed things.
“Nati created this thing, the JSU box, for our kids so they would have a little piece of JSU in everyone’s home. … There were brief synopses of the holiday and how you can make it work in your life, not necessarily what you’d learn in Sunday school,” Bernstein said.
Other JSU chapters around the country have adopted his idea too.
“Being able to reconnect face to face with people has been really amazing. Parents got more involved. The national organization was extra-supportive. They saw the value in this, and they got behind me,” he said.
Rabbi Stern said he will treasure memories of various activities, including basketball tournaments and a volunteering trip to New Orleans with JSU students.
Before he leaves, he’s planning to have a ceremony to honor NCSY student leaders on June 3.
