Kansas City-area Jewish teenagers will soon have a new way to blend fun, friendship, community outreach and spiritual study.
The Kansas City chapter of the Chabad Teen Network (Cteen) will join more than 600 of the international organization’s chapters in 37 countries on six continents. Rabbi Avremi Baron and his wife, Mushky Baron, are establishing and directing Cteen of Kansas City. It will operate under the auspices of Chabad of Kansas and Missouri, Rabbi Baron said.
Teenagers who are affiliated or unaffiliated with a synagogue can participate in Cteen. Rabbi Baron is Cteen of Kansas City’s rabbi, though he is not a rabbi of a congregation.
He and Mushky plan to start the chapter’s programming, which is free for participants, in early October. They recently moved to Leawood from Brooklyn, New York, and since then had their first child, a daughter named Mira.
Rabbi Baron saw a unique opportunity to establish Cteen in the Kansas City area because according to him, the area has more than 20,000 Jews, about 3,000 of whom are teens. So far, more than 100 local teens have expressed interest in joining Cteen.
The programming will center on creating opportunities for teens to volunteer in the Jewish and broader communities in various ways, such as by visiting seniors and sick or special needs children, serving in soup kitchens and making care packages for the Israeli Defense Forces. Programming will be coordinated through social media and by phone and email.
Rabbi Baron grew up in a synagogue with a child with Down syndrome. This led him to develop a “special place in my heart for special needs and sick children,” he said. He thinks teens interact especially well with these children and the children respond well to teens.
Cteen is focused on having fun, “but there should be purpose to our meeting other than having fun — giving back and being kind to others,” he said. His and Mushky’s “sole purpose when we wake up in the morning is to engage the teen demographic of Kansas City.”
Rabbi Baron is 24. He was born in Columbia, Maryland, the seventh of 11 children. His father, Hillel Baron, is also a Chabad rabbi, in Columbia. All his older siblings are Chabad rabbis in various cities in the United States and Canada.
Rabbi Baron became involved in Jewish leadership starting at a young age. He helped his parents at Columbia’s Chabad Center, and that empowerment to lead in the synagogue and the community “uplifted me and changed me.”
During rabbinical school, he worked in teen programming and spent many holidays directing teen programming in Havana, Cuba. After rabbinical school, he taught teens for a year in Oak Park, Michigan. He then spent two years as head counselor at what he called the first and biggest Chabad overnight camp, Camp Gan Israel in Parksville, New York. It has about 600 campers and about 200 staff and is one of thousands of such camps worldwide.
Mushky Baron was born in Leawood. Her father is Rabbi Mendy Wineberg, director of Chabad of Leawood. Like her husband, she started working in Jewish leadership as a youth. Starting at age 20, she chaperoned several annual, weeklong trips to Israel and Europe for Jewish teens to study the Holocaust.
She also has participated in Cteen’s annual Shabbat and Shabbaton (group Shabbat) in Brooklyn. It draws about 3,000 teens from around the world for sightseeing, spiritual learning and networking. It culminates with a Havdalah in Times Square in New York City.
“It’s an incredible act of pride and the teens love it,” Rabbi Baron said. “You’re proud to be a Jew, in such a public place, such a famous place.”
He and Mushky “are incredibly passionate about Jewish continuity,” he said. “We want to see the Jewish people shine. And the future of the Jewish people – the future of any people – are the teens.”
He was drawn to Kansas City because of its Jewish community’s “care and attention to Jewish life.”
“There’s a lot of effort and love that go into all the beautiful programs that happen in Kansas City,” he said. “And I really want to be a part and a player in the growing community.”
Cteen is funded by “like-minded partners,” including individuals and Jewish organizations, he said. Chabad of Leawood recently announced it had raised more than $36,000 for Cteen of Kansas City.
In describing Cteen’s value, Rabbi Baron recited a quote from Lubavitcher Rebbe (the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson), who inspired the Cteen organization: “Youth will be an unstoppable force that will transform the entire world and bring it in alignment with integrity and justice.”
“I think that really shines a lot of light on youth and teens,” Rabbi Baron said. “They have so much energy. The power of the youth, their energy and enthusiasm, can be negative but (when) channeled positively can be used in a positive way.”
Those interested in getting involved in Cteen of Kansas City can contact Rabbi Baron at 410-530-4150, or @Kcteen on Instagram.
By Jerry LaMartina,
Contributing Writer