CHUSY: "Deaf"defying
Our volunteer chapter staff is legally deaf. He helped us plan a program where we taught our chapter about Deaf culture. We had several activities where we learned what it was like to be deaf and feel different vibrations of sounds. We also learned how to communicate and do different prayers in sign language. The best part of the evening was learning how to sing "Hinei Ma Tov" in sign language. After a few minutes of complete laughter, we really caught on and got into the song. We practiced to Rick Recht's version of the song and prepared ourselves for the concert he had at our congregation a few weeks after the program. It was incredible standing up with the band and singing the song in sign language along with Rick Recht for our entire community.

CRUSY: "Covenant"
A B'nai B'rith Assisted living facility, called the Covenant of the South Hills, is located in our area. They had many problems finding service leaders on a weekly basis and called our synagogue for help. The Youth Department volunteered to lead the conservative service which is held on the first Friday of each month. Each month, 4-5 teens lead Kabbalat Shabbat services for the residents. We teach them new songs and tunes as we lead the service. We rotate our teens so each USY'er has a chance to participate. Before we began, the residents barely got a minyan. On our evenings, we have an incredible 25-30 seniors that attend each service. They are so grateful to see the teens there and have commented how wonderful it is to see young people so involved with their Judaism. We are most proud of this event as it ties our youth to their community.

Hagalil
Each week, our USY chapter holds Shabbat services at the synagogue. Teens come not only to socialize with their USY friends, but also to learn in a Jewish environment more informal than the main synagogue service. The Religious Education Vice President, assisted by other chapter board members and chapter laypeople, prepares a D'var Torah that helps relate the Torah portion to USYers' lives and brings some more complex ideas down to a digestible level.

Hagesher
One Friday night, our chapter had a special service devoted to teaching the prayers for Kabbalat Shabbat, Ma'ariv and Birkat Hamazon. The service was led by several different people, each choosing a different part of the service to lead. After we welcomed the Shabbath Queen, Har Zion's congregation joined USYers as they met with our Rel/Ed Vice President, our Cantor or one of our Rabbis to learn each part of the service together. Everyone split into groups and spent time before dinner learning the prayers with their group. After some studying the prayers and leading the service, we all shared a Shabbat dinner and had a Ruach session.

Hanefesh: TGIS (Thank G-d It's Shabbat)
Emanuel USY was thrilled to have "Thank G-d It's Shabbat" (TGIS), on our exciting calendar of events. TGIS is a monthly event where USYers spend a Shabbat evening, including services and dinner, together at a member's house. The night begins with Kabbalat Shabbat and Ma'ariv at synagogue led by our Rel/Ed or a USY member. After services, we walk as a group to the host's house, which is nearby to allow the event to be kept shomer shabbat. From the minute a USYer, old or new, enters the host house they feel at home. The aroma of the freshly baked challah and the sound of USYers chanting Shabbat prayers make the atmosphere of TGIS unparalleled by any other event of the year. Traditional pre-meal blessing precede a delicious Shabbat meal and afterwards USYers gather for our Ruach session. Ruach is one of the highlights of the night as it's simply a time to bond with fellow USYers as well as sing songs obnoxiously loud and let the simcha of Shabbat fill the room! The feeling of Shabbat and spending Shabbat with 20 of your closest Jewish friends is a pleasure and what makes TGIS such a joy.

Hanegev
We had a Mock Wedding to end our year. First, we raised money for Tikun Olam by having people pay to nominate a bride and groom at a Wacky Wednesday. Then, we sent out formal invitations to the wedding. One of our USYers was the "Rabbi" (our International and Regional Rel/Ed VP) and performed a traditional wedding ceremony between our 2 USYers. Afterwards, we had a "reception" which included snacks, wedding cake, and danced the hora. We finished the evening dancing the night away and then went to the youth house for a lock-in.

METNY
Each year the USYers work very hard to organize Youth Shabbat. At Youth Shabbat, USYers and Kadima members lead both Friday night and Saturday morning services for the entire congregations. The USYers take it upon themselves to meet a number of times before youth Shabbat to rehearse and work with the Kadima members who volunteer to lead prayers at youth Shabbat. Following services on Friday night there is a special family Shabbat dinner at which the USYers speak about USY and lead the congregation in Ruach. Following services on Saturday morning, USYers and Kadima members walk together to a local hospital to sing ruach songs to patients. Upon their return to the synagogue the USYers daven mincha together, enjoy dinner and complete Shabbat with havdallah, a special moment every year that many of our congregants return to shul to enjoy.

NERUSY: Purim
Hamantashen Baking: We continued our annual tradition of making Hamentashen for the Synagogue. It saved the shul hundreds of dollars and allowed for the senior USYers to mix with our Jr. USYers and Kadimanicks and help to get them more involved in the USY experience.

Megillah Reading Entertainment: This event was set up and lead by our two wonderful Purim Chairs. We invited the Gann Academy juggling club (which includes two TRUSYers) to perform before the megillah reading, and this attracted a huge number of congregants and USYers. We also led songs between Megillah chapters. This truly was a great family event for the entire synagogue.

Post Purim party: After the Megilah reading the Gann Academy Jugglers and the rest of Temple Reyim USY attended a stupendous party in our beautiful youth lounge. We played Dance Dance revolution and ate a very large amount of food. It was very successful and will hopefully be duplicated next year.

New Frontier: USY Shabbat
For one week, MUSY "took over" Shabbat at Kol Shofar. USYers headlined Shabbat services, leading Shacharit, Torah Service, and Musaf, leyning about half of the morning's aliyot, and giving the drash in a special highlight. Following was a USY-style oneg, co-sponsored by MUSY, and complete with USY z'mirot. The community truly appreciated the ruach that MUSY infused into the morning, with songs, energy, and enthusiasm, and we were equally grateful for their support of the event. In fact, perhaps even more important than the Rel/Ed opportunities created were the opportunities for the congregation to get to know us a little better, from the bimah, over lunch, and during z'mirot. Hopefully the community enjoyed meeting us as much as we were grateful for the chance to give back to the community by showing them what we are capable of, as leaders, as daveners, and as people. The event was the first one of its kind at Kol Shofar, but we hope to make it a tradition for many years to come.

Pinwheel
Our best Rel/ed program was the USY service where we lead the services as well as had a Friday night shabbat dinner where the USYers both learned about the customs and laws revolving around the Shabbat. Everyone also got a chance to participate in the customs including the brachot for washing of the hands and all the food groups. Everyone really enjoyed the event and requested it to be made an event for the following year. It was a great experience to see kids from our community singing prayers, enjoying good food and singing songs together after the meal. Hopefully we can hold more events like this and get kids more involved in their community.

Tzafon
Akiba USY's best religious program this year was Kadima/USY Shabbat. The entire event was organized by our Religious Education VP, Hannah Simons, who sent out letters, made phone calls, and even helped get tapes to people who needed assistance with Torah Readings. The program was a huge success with USYers and Kadimaniks leading every aspect of the service. The Rabbi was so impressed he said that he wanted there to be a Kadima/USY Shabbat once a month because of the spunk and ruach we brought to the bima. The service was followed by a Shabbat luncheon for the congregation provided by the parents of USYers and Kadimaniks.

Seaboard
Chocolate Seder was our best Religious Education program. This was the second year of running this program, and so it has become fairly popular. Last year, a "Haggadah" was created by a few board members, which was a spoof on the actual Haggadah. You see, this Haggadah focuses on candy and chocolate, and rotates around these themes. Everyone sits around a table covered in chocolate, which such amenities as a chocolate Seder plate, chocolate covered Matza, green m&ms to resemble herbs and parsley, among other clever spoofs on the holiday. This was a great way to indulge in hametz the week prior to the holiday!

SWUSY: Super Shabbat in the Sukkah
Every year, AAUSY likes to team up with the local BBYO and NFTY chapters for a really big, all-teen-Jews event. This year, we decided to have a Friday night Shabbat dinner at Hillel. Our Rel/Ed and President met with the corresponding representatives from BBYO and NFTY, and all three groups helped to plan services, the mixers, the program, and the dinner, It was a great night, because we got to forget about the divides between what each branch of Judaism believes, and concentrate on the fact that we're all Jews and we're all in this together.

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