BBYO's Top Teen Leaders Convene in Nashville to Set Goals for Coming Year

The ten teen leaders from across North America who make up the International Boards of BBYO’s Aleph Zadik Aleph (AZA) and B’nai Birth Girls (BBG) gathered in Nashville, TN to develop a strategic plan for the upcoming school year. Since BBYO is celebrating its 85th anniversary this year, the teen leaders discussed how to continue to grow the organization, which currently engages 27,000 Jewish teens, while also adapting its programs to meet the interests of today’s teens. Over the course of the four day meeting, the teen leaders prioritized the organizational goals for the coming year such as membership initiatives, charity allocation, Jewish content through out the organization and programming quality.

“It’s a wonderful feeling to know that our peers and BBYO professionals trust us with the organization’s planning process,” said Jeremy Sherman, BBYO’s Grand Aleph Moreh from West Bloomfield, MI. “If we all think strategically together, BBYO will continue to grow and provide valuable experiences to Jewish teens everywhere.”

The international teen leaders will work throughout the summer to prepare their plans for the school year. They will then reconvene with more than 100 of the organization’s regional teen leaders on August 13-16 for Executive Meetings to discuss specific implementation.

“Empowering teens to create their own strategic plans, develop programming, and run meetings is at the heart of what makes BBYO an incredibly impactful youth experience,” said Shayna Kreisler, BBYO’s Director of Education, who staffed the retreat along with BBYO professionals Ian Kandel, Emily Hyatt and Judith Rosenberg. “We couldn’t be more proud of our teen leaders’ desire to lead BBYO to make a difference in the world and strengthen the future of the Jewish community.”