BBYO is deepening its impact in Manhattan, furthering its mission of involving more Jewish teens in more meaningful Jewish experiences.

In partnership with JCC Manhattan, BBYO has assigned full-time staffing, scholarship funds and programmatic resources to charter an affiliate of its leadership programs – the Aleph Zadik Aleph (AZA, BBYO’s high school fraternity) and the B’nai B’rith Girls (BBG, BBYO’s high school sorority) – to serve the Manhattan Jewish teen community. With JCC Manhattan serving as a dynamic home base on the Upper West Side, the two organizations are identifying Jewish teens who will serve as the architects of BBYO’s Manhattan region. Surrounding BBYO regions in Westchester, Queens, Brooklyn, Long Island and northern New Jersey currently reach over 5,600 teens annually.

Like all BBYO programs, the Manhattan Region’s programming will be teen-led so that it most accurately reflects the interests of the teens involved. Diverse local school-year programs and summer experiences at camp, on campus, in Israel and around the world offer teens opportunities to gain the confidence and character they need to be successful in life as they form lasting relationships with each other.

BBYO Manhattan Region’s launch event, a pre-screening of The Hunger Games – Mockingjay Part 1 as part of BBYO’s Movement-wide hunger awareness and advocacy campaign “Can-Tribute,” brought together 175 youth in the area who collected approximately 800 pounds of food to donate to local food banks.

“This partnership is a win-win for all involved,” said Matthew Grossman, BBYO Chief Executive Officer. “JCC Manhattan is a programmatic juggernaut with an outstanding reputation across all age groups. We believe they provided us with the best opportunity to ramp up quickly and leverage resources.”

BBYO Manhattan Region’s next event is “Wrap It Up” on Sunday, December 7th. This will be a community service event at JCC Manhattan during which teens will spend the afternoon wrapping and decorating donated presents which will then be distributed by City Santa, a local nonprofit, to children in homeless and domestic violence shelters.

For more information on this event and about BBYO Manhattan Region, please contact Andrew Paull, Senior Regional Director, at 646.505.4413 or apaull@bbyo.org.