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Dear Friends and Supporters,
This week, Toronto welcomed something extraordinary. For the first time in 40 years, the JCC Maccabi Games returned to our city, bringing together more than 2,000 Jewish teenagers from communities across Canada, the United States, Israel, and around the world. They came to compete in basketball, hockey, soccer, swimming, and so much more, but what they experienced was far greater than sport. For one remarkable week, thousands of young Jews were surrounded by Jewish pride, Jewish friendship, and Jewish community.
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For Torah High, that represents an enormous opportunity. A teenager can walk past a booth, have one conversation, meet one staff member, hear about one program, and begin a relationship that changes the direction of their Jewish life. That is how engagement begins. Not always in a classroom. Not always in a shul. Sometimes it begins between basketball games, in a hallway, with a teen realizing that there is a place in the Jewish community where somebody knows their name and wants to see them again.
This is what our supporters make possible. You allow Torah High to be present at the critical points of connection in a Jewish teenager’s life. You help us turn a week of inspiration into a relationship, a relationship into Jewish learning, and Jewish learning into a stronger sense of identity and belonging. The booth may have occupied only a small piece of space at the Maccabi Games, but the potential impact of those conversations is immeasurable. Our investment is not in booths or brochures. It is in Jewish teenagers. It is in their future.
The Maccabi Games reminded us of something very important. When Jewish teenagers are given the opportunity to gather proudly as Jews, they want to belong. Our job is to make sure that when the week ends, there is somewhere for that belonging to continue. Thanks to your partnership, Torah High is there to welcome them, inspire them, and help carry that Jewish connection forward.
With gratitude,
Rabbi Glenn Black
CEO, NCSY Canada
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Boy George is defending his use of AI to produce “We Will Dance Again,” his song honouring the victims of the NOVA festival attack. George says he deliberately avoided human collaborators because he expected pushback over its pro-Israel message. That concern has now materialized, with some of his own bandmates questioning whether they will perform it and George saying those who refuse will be fired.
The story goes beyond another debate about AI-generated music. George used the technology to make the song he wanted despite resistance around him, and says he is willing to lose professional relationships rather than back away from publicly standing with the Jewish community.
| | TJJ Reunions Bring The Israel Experience Back Home | | |
The trip may be over, but the relationships built on NCSY’s TJJ (The Jerusalem Journey) are still going strong. Bus 1 reunited for a Shabbaton in Montreal, while Buses 2 and 3 gathered in Toronto for a Friday night dinner reunion, bringing friends back together just weeks after returning from Israel.
That continuity is a big part of what makes TJJ matter. The goal is not for Israel to become one incredible summer memory, but for the friendships, Jewish experiences, and sense of belonging built there to keep shaping teens once they come home. Reunions like these help turn a trip into something lasting.
| | Watch the original video here! | | |
Scottish content creator Morgan has gone viral with a joyful rendition of the Miami Boys Choir’s “Yerushalayim,” singing the Hebrew lyrics with remarkably accurate pronunciation and her own unmistakably Scottish flair. Her clip is the latest chapter in the unlikely viral life of a 2007 Miami Boys Choir performance that exploded far beyond the Orthodox Jewish world in 2022.
Nearly two decades after it was recorded, a song built around the words of Psalm 125 is still finding new voices and audiences with no obvious connection to Jewish music. It is a joyful example of how Jewish culture can travel far beyond the places we expect it to reach and invite others to join in.
| | HaRav Yosef Zvi Rimon Brings A Living Lesson In Miracles To NCSY Kollel | | |
NCSY Kollel had the privilege of hosting HaRav Yosef Zvi Rimon, who shared Torah and perspective with the teens, including a powerful idea: generations once looked to Chanukah and Purim to learn about miracles, but today, we can look out the window and see them unfolding around us.
For teens spending their summer immersed in Israel and learning, the message made Jewish history feel immediate. Torah is not only about understanding the miracles of generations past. It can also teach young people how to recognize Jewish history unfolding in their own time and see themselves as part of that continuing story.
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After the collapse of the Shabsels brothers’ camp empire, 23 properties sold for a combined $368.3 million, with several attracting bids far beyond expectations. Mohawk Day Camp alone sold for $120.8 million, while some camps were purchased by current operators and others went to private investors and nonprofits.
Behind the enormous numbers is a larger question about the future of Jewish summer camp. Nonprofits hoping to make camp more accessible struggled to compete with deep-pocketed “passion bidders,” while families worried about whether longtime camps would survive intact. The auction shows how ownership decisions can ultimately shape who gets access to these formative Jewish experiences and whether communities built over generations continue.
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