Jewish Pride New York Takeover
6 years ago eglazer 0
Whoa! The energy and Jewish pride at the shabbaton was amazing! The moment I walked into registration I could already feel the energy in the atmosphere. There was so much singing and dancing! I knew it was going to be a great weekend.
As soon as my chapter walked into dinner Thursday night, we were already walking around meeting new people, talking to people we knew, taking pictures, and joining in to dance at every chance we got. Once the dinner was over, my chapter went walking around Crown Heights. We met even more chapters and people! Seeing all these CTeeners on the street was pretty cool; we were all Jewish teens in the same area-all together, united as one. There was always a new face to meet.
As Shabbos came in Friday night, the girls in my chapter walked to Beis Rivkah for Kabbalat Shabbat, games, speakers, and dinner. As we were walking we were wished a “good Shabbos,” from various chapters. We also received Shabbat greetings from people who weren’t a part of the shabbaton. It was nice to see how the Crown Heights community came together and reached out to us.
The Shabbos festivities continued and it was the best! Once Shabbos ended, it got even better! We took our Jewish pride and brought it to Times Square. On our way into the city, we completely took over the subway. We sung and cheered the entire time. It was the absolute best to show off our Jewish pride and then we got to Times Square for Havdallah and a concert and our singing and cheering continued.
Times Square had to be one of my most inspirational moments. We had our CTeen logo, Hebrew, English, our pictures, and more displayed for the visitors in Times Square to see. Then when the videos started to play, it was a really cool feeling to know that there were 2,000 Jewish teens united together showing off our Jewish pride to all of Times Square.
After a fun filled weekend, Sunday had already arrived. At the banquet, we all gathered in a room to share CTeen moments, Jewish inspiration, videos, and to hear even more about our theme “Organic Torah” and learn what it means to be Jewish in today’s world.
Once that was over, and we thought the shabbaton ended, there was one more surprise! Gad Elbaz performed just for us! He sang songs everyone sang along to as we were all jumping up and down dancing. As I was in the crowd, I saw the faces of thousands of Jewish teens and I thought of how awesome it was to be together in a room with everyone.
Even though it’s sad the shabbaton has ended, it’s happy to think that now, all two thousand of us are bringing this Jewish pride into the world and it can only grow stronger each and everyday. This may be my last year of CTeen but without it, I probably wouldn’t know how to act as a proud Jew. CTeen maybe ending for me soon, but CTeen will always be with me and I will take my Jewish pride with me wherever I go. 
