Welcome to the NFTY-CAR webpage! North American Federation of Temple Youth-Chicago Area Region, known as NFTY-CAR, is one of nineteen regions that make up NFTY, the youth movement of the Union for Reform Judaism. NFTY-CAR includes the suburbs and surrounding cities of Chicago, as well as northwestern Indiana. NFTY-CAR offers Reform, Jewish, high school students an opportunity to learn, worship, and create lifelong friendships within a youth-led environment. We work towards enlightening and educating our participants on historical and spiritual Judaism as well as social action and social justice. A large focus is on enhancing leadership skills, development, and social opportunities for all the participants. We hold 5 regional events each year held at various host temples in our region as well as two at our regional camp OSRUI in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. We also have smaller mini events throughout the year around the Chicagoland area. These events are attended by 70-150 teens from congregations from the South Bend to Olympia Fields, and from Champaign to Lindenhurst, and also, the city of Chicago! NFTY-CAR also hosts a Junior Youth Group Retreat for middle school students which is run by the regional board and several other NFTYites.

We strive to provide regional and national programming and administrative support to the local youth groups - helping to share the wisdom and experience gathered from hundreds of youth groups and adult leaders from across North America.The leadership of NFTY-CAR is always available to answer questions and provide useful resources for local youth programs. We hope this site is a starting point for compiling resources and learning about the many different opportunities, both regionally and nationally, that are available for our teens. Please take the time to explore our website; it is full of countless resources and lots of ruach!