NCSY to merge Long Island and New York regions

By Michael Orbach

Long Island NCSY will be merging with New York NCSY to form one New York Region that will include Long Island, Westchester and the Five Boroughs.

Rabbi Aryeh Lightstone, the former director of the Long Island region, will head the new organization. The merger will effectively double the size of the region.

“The biggest advantage is you go from 14 clubs with 500 unique public schools students and 100 of them who go to regionals, and now you’re taking that, adding 8 new clubs and, just based on our Twitter and Facebook, 2300 unique public students with 250 going to regionals,” Rabbi Lightstone explained.

Combing the two regions into one also made financial sense to NCSY and its parent organization, the Orthodox Union.

“The cost associated with that, paying rent on both offices, administrative support on both staffs and a secretary and a book keeper; we’re saving, off the bat, from duplication, well over $100,000,” said Rabbi Lightstone.

With the money saved from combining two offices, one on Central Avenue in Cedarhurst and the other on Main Street in Queens, Rabbi Lightstone said he would be able to hire four new outreach professionals.

He credited the Orthodox Union.

“The OU took the money from the rent and the cell phone and the secretary, and basically came and said, ‘This money is yours,” he said.

With numbers on his side, Rabbi Lightstone is optimistic about the future of the new region.

“A crowd follows a crowd,” he said. “Once you hit the crowd, they’re able to motivate themselves. If you’re sending three kids, you have three very nice stories, but if you send 30 then it just becomes ‘the thing.’ Last year we sent over 20 to Israel. The effort getting the three to commit was tremendous; the other 30 went because their friends went.”