A Miraculous Journey
Phil Katz does not think of his shopping trip to Hackensack a few years ago as a coincidence. He knows it was a miracle.
Phil Katz does not think of his shopping trip to Hackensack a few years ago as a coincidence. He knows it was a miracle.
A few years ago Phil, now aged 17 and a senior in Northern Highlands high school, went to visit the mall in Hackensack even though he lives 30 minutes away in Upper Saddle River, with malls much closer to home. He was on the way to buy his then- girlfriend a dress for the upcoming Friday night Prom.
While there, he dropped into a Starbucks, where he happened to meet Yosef Golubchik, an NCSY advisor, who was running an NCSY “Latte & Learning” program. The two started a conversation about the relevance of Judaism, and Phil enjoyed himself. “Good conversation, good company, good coffee.”
He came back twice more, and Yosef challenged Phil—a popular figure in his school who competed as a wrestler and football player—to start an NCSY Jewish Student Union (JSU) Club at his public high school. Yosef provided the free pizza and the programming and Phil easily recruited the Jewish students.
Then Phil signed up for a Regional Shabbaton and instantaneously “fell in love with the ruach.” One memory stands out: During Havdallah, Phil saw a high school senior who, while holding the candle, was moved to tears. It dawned on Phil that this other boy was truly impacted by his Judaism and belief in G-d, and this touched Phil deeply.
After the Shabbaton, Phil attended NCSY’s Yarchei Kallah Scholars’ program, a six-day leadership and learning retreat during the December break. After these events Phil felt inspired, but remained essentially the same person. He wasn’t ready to make major changes to his lifestyle.
It was NCSY’s “Jerusalem Journey”—a four and a half week program for Jewish students who had never been to Israel—“that changed [Phil’s] entire life.” During those weeks in Israel, Phil realized that the feelings of true happiness he was experiencing had nothing to do with his physical welfare. On the trip he got little sleep and none of his mom’s home cooking. “But I was happier than I had ever been.” The next day, he decided to start keeping Shabbos and eating kosher.
Since then, Phil has been intensely involved in NCSY, even handling the programming in nearby public schools and working on recruitment for NCSY events. Now as Regional JSU President, Phil and his team have “created more JSU Clubs,” he says. “We’ve recruited two dozen kids to go to Shabbatons, a half-dozen to go to Israel, and four or five to go on Yarchei Kallah.” Several of his high school friends, following Phil’s example, have also become more observant.
About his NCSY experience in general, Phil says, “I saw this whole other life, other world, other opportunity that I could be a part of. The combined intellectual and emotional experiences mesmerized me. Looking back, that trip to Hackensack was not a coincidence. It was truly a miracle.”
