Surfing the Way to More Stable Lives

Oran Bendelstein is exporting his love of shredding—and counting on it to keep at-risk teenagers afloat

By Kylie Ora Lobell for Tablet Magazine
Oran Bendelstein, 33, has always loved to surf. As a kid growing up in Atlantic Beach, New York, he preferred getting up on his board to studying, or even playing video games. It’s a passion he carried into adulthood, with the creation of ReSurf, a nonprofit that refurbishes used, donated surfboards and ships them to underprivileged youth in Israel, Mexico, Long Island, and San Diego. So far, he—or, rather, his boards—have reached more than 500 teenagers. That number will rise yet again this month, when ReSurf, already in the Netanya area of Israel, comes to Tel Aviv, Herzliya, and Akko.

“I think it’s important to give over something that I have and love,” said Bendelstein, from his home in Long Beach, New York. “That something is surfing. It can change your life in one second. I can give these kids a sense of personal value and community and the tools to succeed. That’s my ultimate goal.”

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Tooting My Own Horn

I gave up playing a musical instrument — until I walked into beginning band my freshman year.

By Rachel Chabin for Fresh Ink for Teens
My first stint with instrumental music was back in elementary school. Every few days, a group of students would be escorted down a flight of stairs, past the clanking boiler and into our teacher’s basement classroom. For a year I took great pride in what I thought was my prowess with the recorder, managing to play a small, simplified part of Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On.” Once I moved up to playing the flute, however, my enthusiasm for band stalled and I struggled to play even the simplest notes. In middle school — where we didn’t have any music program — I forgot about my wind instrument experience, convinced I wasn’t cut out to be a musician after all.

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Youths from Jerusalem and Boston come together to celebrate differences

At peace camp, youths from Jerusalem and Boston explore religious, cultural differences

By Jennifer Smith GLOBE CORRESPONDENT

The children hopped around on stage and beckoned for their parents to join them in chipper camp songs. They looked like any group of preteens just back from camp, but they had just returned from more than a week of sharing confusion and fears over their religious identities. The experience was meant to help them navigate the historically fraught relationships among Muslims, Jews, and Christians.

They are 12- and 13-year-olds from the Boston and Jerusalem areas. In a celebration at the Temple Beth Zion in Brookline on Sunday filled with singing, dancing, and demolishing a substantial slab of cake, the two-dozen children, members of Kids4Peace Boston, wrapped up a 10-day summer camp, which encourages religious understanding and tolerance through getting to know peers from different cultures.

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Needham sixth-graders "Choose to Be Nice"

By Stacy Lovett for the Needham Wickedlocal

NEEDHAM-One of the hallmarks of becoming an adult is a shift in responsibility for one’s own actions. Vital to this shift is a moral education and the ethical ability to make the “right” choice, as well as the understanding that these decisions have a very real effect on humanity as a whole.
This fall, Jack Gordon and Maddie Gerber, sixth-grade students at High Rock School, will become a bar and bat mitzvah (or “adult” in the eyes of Jewish law), respectively, through Temple Beth Shalom. With this rite of passage, the two are tasked with implementing a “Mitzvah Project,” which encourages the teenagers to give back to the community in some meaningful way. In discussing their goals for their projects, Jack and Maddie realized that their interests were closely aligned. Together, they decided to promote the “Choose to Be Nice” movement, which inspires acts of kindness wherever and whenever possible.
“Choose to Be Nice” was founded by Dina Creiger, also a Needham resident, shortly after the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013. Creiger had a vision to do something “big and positive,” but did not know how to fit it in between her career in media sales and raising her son.

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NCSY — The Greatest Inspiration

By: Asher Becker, NCSY.org

There’s so much to say about NCSY that I don’t know where to begin. My name is Asher Becker and I joined the NCSY family 7 years ago when I attended NCSY Kollel. Since then, I’ve been hooked as I will G-d willing be going back for my 8th consecutive summer — 4th as a madrich and 6th as staff member.

Over the last few years, I have also had the privilege to be more involved with various NCSY regions throughout the year, including New England and Midwest. Getting more involved has given me the remarkable opportunity to work alongside some of the best and brightest in the world of Jewish education, including Rabbi Dovid Bashekvin, Rabbi Moshe Benovitz, Rabbi Netanal Lebowitz, Rabbi Rael Blumenthal, and Debbie Stone. Additionally, I have even developed relationships with those in the National NCSY office, including David Cutler, director of NCSY Summer, Elliot Tanzman, Jen Goldman, and so many others who do amazing work for NCSY.

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