Whenever her older sister would return from NFTY retreats, Aliza Gazek remembers feeling a wee bit jealous.
“She would go off for the weekend,” recalls Gazek, 18. “It was a mystery to me. She always had an amazing time. So I assumed I would go into the same thing.”
And she did. Ever since her freshman year in high school, Gazek has made the North American Federation of Temple Youth a centerpiece of her life.
Last month the Santa Cruz native was elected North American president of the Reform movement’s youth organization. Gazek begins her one-year term this June, after graduating from Georgiana Bruce Kirby Preparatory High School.
NFTY represents Reform synagogue youth across the United States and Canada. Divided into 19 regions, the student-led organization sponsors local social events, hosts leadership workshops and a summer camp in upstate New York, offers Israel experiences and holds annual conventions.
Gazek didn’t walk into her new position — she had to campaign. She presented a letter of intent to the 2009 NFTY convention, held in Washington, D.C., last month, and spoke before the attendees.
How did she manage to sway peers to vote for her? “I have an appreciation for everything that NFTY does,” she says, “and also because I’ve been a part of so many NFTY programs I’m able to see what’s going on and what we can do.”
Over the last four years Gazek served as an advisory board member of Kutz Camp (NFTY’s summer retreat), and for a semester last year she lived on a kibbutz near Jerusalem under the auspices of a NFTY program. She is a veteran of Camp Newman/Swig and she currently serves as president of NFTY’s Central West division, which stretches from Utah to Hawaii.
As involved as she is with NFTY, Gazek also has other interests, especially music. She sings with her school’s chamber chorale and jazz choir. Rounding out her résumé, she is also captain of her school volleyball team, and she’s big on composting.
Keeping a teen’s interest in Jewish life post–b’nai mitzvah can be a challenge. Gazek credits her family and her synagogue — Congregation Beth El in Aptos — for inspiring her to press on.
“I’ve been going since second grade,” she says of her level of involvement. “Santa Cruz is not a predominantly Jewish community, so [NFTY] is where I had my Jewish friends. If a kid stays involved and they make it to NFTY, it opens huge doors to a much greater community.”
During her term, Gazek intends to focus on building community and social action programming. She says just about every NFTY activity has a social action component — such as when local NFTY Halloween parties require attendees to bring costumes to donate. She also believes in building interfaith ties, and hopes to launch a Jewish-Muslim dialogue at a NFTY event this May.
By this time next year, Gazek will be attending college somewhere in North America, thought she doesn’t yet know where. Wherever it is, she’ll reside in one of the 19 NFTY regions, and will serve her term from there.
“I’ve learned so much and gained so much from my years,” Gazek says of her NFTY experience, “and to pass this on is a great honor. For me NFTY has opened the doors to so many relationships with people I completely love.”