Houston Congregation for Reform Judaism is excited to be hosting the NFTY-TOR (North American Federation of Temple Youth – Texas Oklahoma Region) Conclave on October 20-22, 2017. This is set to be the largest Jewish teen event our city is hosting this year. We will be hosting approximately 120 teens.
NFTY-TOR, Greene Family Camp, our teens and our congregation truly appreciate your generosity and hospitality when opening your home to our teens! We often hear that interactions with host families are a highlight of a teen’s experience during a Conclave. This is a unique time for you to bond with Jewish youth in our region and for our teens to interact with you as part of the wider Jewish community. We know that you will have a wonderful time as a host family!
Host families are asked to provide housing and transportation to and from HCRJ over the weekend (schedule below) for at least three deserving teens. Host families will need to feed the teens breakfast Saturday morning and supervise 2 hours of free time (this can include going to the mall, seeing sights around Houston, or just hanging out together) on Saturday afternoon and overnight. The teens will be with us the rest of the time. They can bring sleeping bags, so couches and comfortable floor space work fine.
We hope you choose to join us in making this weekend a success for our congregation and our region. To sign up as a host family, please fill out the submission form here.
While this event is for 8th-12th graders, you don’t need to be a religious school family or have teenage children to host during this weekend. Families with younger children often find that having teens in the house is exciting for their kids.
We are currently planning events for the Conclave and will have our schedule finalized in the coming months, but below is a preliminary transportation schedule:
Friday, October 20: Arrive at HCRJ at 9PM for Host Family Meeting
Meet and Pick up Teens at 11PM
Saturday, October 21: Drop off teens at HCRJ at 9AM
Pick up teens at HCRJ at 11PM
Sunday, October 22: Drop off teens at HCRJ at 9AM
Although this event isn’t until October, housing is an important logistic, which we hope to have in place this summer. Please let us know how many teens you can host by replying to this email and filling out the linked form above. If you don’t have time to fill out the form now, a quick reply to this email will alert us to your participation.
Thank you for considering being a host family for our Conclave coming up in October! Please let us know if you have any questions.
Justin Deutsch
713-782-4162
admin@hcrj.org
Emily Weinstein
713-291-8530
emilywpr@aol.com