NCSY, the international youth movement of the Orthodox Union, announced at Yarchei Kallah (NCSY’s winter retreat for public school students) that the NCSY Bencher app has hit both the Apple iTunes and Google Play stores. This intuitive new app offers users a digital prayerbook with the Grace After Meals, zemiros for Shabbos and festivals, and popular songs.
The app is a virtual version of the household staple in the Jewish community, with over 2.5 million copies printed and with numerous translations including German, Hungarian, Russian, and Spanish. The app is intended for weekday use as a bencher, and as an educational tool to teach users melodies and pronunciation of traditional songs, thanks to the app’s database of audio recordings.
“Of course, we hope nobody uses this app on Shabbos or Yom Tov, but we’re confident that anyone on their way toward greater religious observance will use the tool the way it is meant to be, and in the right times,” said Keevy Fried, associate international director of NCSY.
The app was launched at NCSY’s Yarchei Kallah, a five-day retreat that gives public school teens the opportunity to learn Torah during their winter break. More than 300 teens chose to learn Torah over another ski or beach trip, benefiting from traditional classroom learning supplemented with group study, one-on-one learning, and late night discussions with teachers, advisers, and fellow NCSYers.
After a week of studying Torah, teens are imbued with a deep passion for learning more about their heritage. Held this year at the Doubletree Hilton of Somerset, New Jersey, the conference was organized around an impromptu beit midrash – a ballroom that was set up to serve as a yeshiva study hall for the students.
“Yarchei Kallah exposes teens to a caliber and quality of Torah learning that they’re not exposed to regularly,” said Rabbi Micah Greenland, international director of NCSY. “It plants the seeds for a love of learning that can blossom over time.”
And it was the perfect place and time to announce the NCSY Bencher app. First pitched as an idea by Samuel Waller, a financial adviser in Manhattan, the app allows for those unfamiliar with the liturgy to study the songs and text, and feel at home within Jewish observance. While the bencher is common at Shabbos tables and at simchas around the world, for those who grow up without much in the way of Jewish tradition, its prayers, songs, and their meanings remain out of easy reach.
“When I began eating in people’s homes on Shabbos as I was becoming observant, I saw the bencher almost everywhere,” said Waller. “Since I’m not musically inclined, it was hard for me to pick up on all the different songs and tunes that people sang. I tried to find an online source where I could learn all of them, but there were none.”
David Olivestone, former director of communications for the Orthodox Union and the editor of the original NCSY bencher, says turning the bencher into an app is a smart move. “As a printed book, it’s gone through more than two and a half million copies. Just think how many more people will be able to access it as an app. As observant Jews, we still need printed books on Shabbos and the holidays, but I’m all in favor of utilizing whatever technology there is to make it easier for everyone to daven, bench and learn.”
The recordings are performed by singer/songwriter Aryeh Kuntsler. The app features over 125 recordings, including classics like “Shalom Aleichem” and “Eishes Chayil” as well as lesser-known songs like “Hinei Yomim Boim” and “Va’ihi Yishurun Melech.”
Fried, who was involved in the production of the app, says this new product is perfectly in line with the NCSY modus operandi. “We went to synagogues first, then to social outlets like coffee shops, and then to public schools – wherever the teens are, we’re there too,” he said. “In today’s world, teens are online, so consistent with our strategy, we’re continuing to find and enhance the platform to meet them there, to relate to them, and, ultimately, to inspire them.”
The NCSY Bencher can be downloaded at:
(For iPhone) itunes.apple.com/us/app/ncsybencher/id1152458191?mt=8
(For Android) http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.ou.ncsybencher
