August 5, 2001
11 Broadway, New York, NY 10004, Tel: (212) 563-4000, Fax (212) 564-9058, www.ou.org
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Sharyn Perlman
August 5, 2001 Phone: 212.613.8321
Giving NCSYers a Sporting Chance
What do sports, ethics, law and Jewish study all have in common? For the 175 young men who are attending the Orthodox Union's Camp NCSY Sports in Baltimore this summer, these disciplines represent a typical summer day. Camp Sports is a boy's camp that brings together high school teenagers who hail from a broad range of religious backgrounds across the United States and Canada. Housed in the Ner Israel campus in Baltimore, the aim of the camp is to broaden the campers' Jewish knowledge and awareness in a fun and relaxed atmosphere, combining an enriching educational curriculum with competitive sports and exciting trips.
This year a new ethics program, sponsored by the Aleph Institute (a non-for-profit organization that addresses the religious, educational, humanitarian and advocacy needs of individuals in institutional environments), was introduced in the camp, written by Steven H. Resnicoff, professor of law at DePaul University College of Law. A graduate of Yale and Princeton, and ordained by the late Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, Professor Resnicoff is the Wicklander Chair of Ethics at DePaul University. The course presents 14 practical cases in Choshen Mishpat (the area of Jewish law that deals with monetary issues) that have relevance for teenagers. Instructors present source materials and additional analyses written in English, Hebrew and Aramaic that enable the campers to discuss the ethical ramifications of the 14 cases. [JLaw Ed. Note: To view the hypothetical cases that the campers studied, click here.]
The classes are taught by a team of six Ner Israel Kollel members, two senior NCSY staff members and ten NCSY advisors. Rabbi Avraham David Motzen, one of the camp's educational directors, explained, "We are quite proud and excited about this new law and ethics program. The combined study of the secular and Jewish legal systems within the context of the campers' daily schedule not only broadens their educational perspective but also highlights the mission of the camp, to combine Judaic studies with sports and other informal educational opportunities."
Director of NCSY Sports, Rabbi Jeffrey Greenberg, said, "The camp has grown more than tenfold from a dozen teenagers twenty years ago to the one-hundred-seventy-five participants this year. Being located at the Ner Israel campus in Baltimore allows us to take advantage of the Torah atmosphere and Ner Israel's many Torah scholars. This new ethics program allows us to challenge the minds of our already first-class campers."
For more information about Camp NCSY Sports, or to apply for the summer 2002 program, call 212.613.8233 or visit www.campsports.org/.
Since it was founded in 1954, NCSY has pioneered the Jewish outreach movement and today is the world's largest Jewish youth program. With chapters in 39 states, 215 communities across the nation and 3 Canadian provinces, NCSY reaches tens of thousands of boys and girls annually by offering 750 major educational events and programs and 10 summer camps – in the U.S., Israel and the Ukraine.
The Orthodox Union, now in its second century of service to the Jewish community of America and beyond, is a world leader in youth work, advocacy for persons with disabilities, synagogue services, adult education and political action. Its kosher supervision label, the
, is the world's most recognized kosher symbol and can be found on over 250,000 products in 68 countries around the globe. 
