It’s written in the new testament: “But now they are many members, but one body.”

In high school, I wanted to look deep into the local community around me, so I spent time as the President of my TYG board and as a member of my synagogue’s board of directors. The youngest on the board by thirty years, I was the youth voice for the temple. I helped in passing the next year’s budget, in planning events for our congregation and the San Diego Jewish community, and in rebranding the synagogue as we examined the membership system. I learned to work with adults, how to earn respect and how to look at my community from an abstract point of view. I expanded the breadth and depth of my experience in the Jewish community. I have worked to look at both the many bodies, and the one.

My name is Garrett Layton, and it is my unwavering passion for Judaism that inspires me to declare my candidacy to be the next NFTY Religious and Cultural Vice President.

Reform Jewish youth, as a community, have developed in the way of the many and the singular. Temple youth group programs offer a stepping stone for teens into the greater Jewish community, which they can then launch off of into NFTY. My platform is to use the NFTY ​ program, with its immense support and foundation, to increase NFTY’s relationship with both the many members, and the one body.

To strengthen the many members of NFTY. NFTY acts as an incredible resource to ​ the TYG, bringing together the many members of Jewish youth. It works as a think tank to share program ideas, as an opportunity to network and increase awareness of events, and as a resource for finding new ways to get teens involved at a local level. My first goal is to expand on that resource, giving the TYG a database of service formats and templates, accessible through the NFTY website. Drawing from the NFTY Bencher, and the current database for regional-event services and ideas, we can assist the TYG in expanding the religious aspects of their events, and create a greater understanding of the way we pray throughout the nation, connecting groups to each other through prayer. To strengthen the single body of global Jewish youth. I want to work with Netzer ​ Olami, the Zionist youth movement of Progressive Judaism, as a foundation for relationships and connections. . I want to partner NFTY regions with branches from across the globe to connect and share ideas, and to foster a global relationship. I believe that this global community of Jewish teens should be an important part of the future of NFTY. Heller High EIE fits into a large focal point of Netzer Olami, which is to bring Jewish youth to to expand their relationship with Judaism and . I want to connect the EIE program with Noar Telem, the Israeli branch of Netzer, so that part of the NFTY in Israel experience is giving students the opportunity to develop a relationship with the global community of progressive Jewish youth.

NFTY has a strong foundation, and offers both breadth and depth to for teens. The challenge I want to place upon myself next year is to expand that breadth and depth, to push deep into the local TYG and wide into the global . We can launch our movement into the next generation with a foundation for Jewish togetherness.

L’Shalom, Garrett Layton