THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 29, 1995 TAG: 9509280155
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
ELLEN ANITAI SIGHED as she surveyed the cramped corner from which her daughter, Tamar, conducts the business of the North American Federation of Temple Youth.
``We sort of promoted all of this and then it blew up in our hands,'' the Cleveland native said good-naturedly.
Tamar, a senior at First Colonial High School and national vice president for programming of the organization whose abbreviated name, NAFTY, comes out sounding a lot like ``nifty,'' laughed along with her mother. Quickly, though, she turned to discussing the serious business of the group to which she devotes a major portion of her time.
``We're the youth arm of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations,'' Tamar explained. ``That's the Reform Judaism movement in this country.''
By any standards, NAFTY is a large organization, involving as it does between 10,000 and 15,000 high school and college students in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Virgin Islands.
Last June, Tamar was installed as national programming vice president for NAFTY and life in the Anitai household has not been the same since.
``Some evenings I may talk to people in as many as five different states,'' the older of Ellen and Yaron Anitai's two daughters (sister Mya is 13) said.
Most of those phone conversations are with fellow members of the organization's executive board or with individuals who serve as program vice presidents in NAFTY's 20 regions throughout the country.
``We maintain a program bank so if someone wants to know about programs another group has presented on a topic they can call me and I can tell them,'' she said.
While there's plenty of time for enjoyment built into Temple Youth Group activities, the topics for programs can be pretty serious. Among them are some of the most debated issues of the day: separation of church and state, prayer in school and ethnic cleansing.
Surprisingly, Tamar works without the aid of a computer. She does have a word processor but the primary tool of her trade is the telephone.
``Fortunately,'' she said, ``we have a credit card.'' Fortunately for her parents, the ``we'' in that sentence refers to NAFTY, not to the Anitai family.
Another major facet of her job is travel. She'll be headed for Atlanta to meet with regional representatives there in November, then on to Kansas City and Mississippi before she gets to New Orleans for New Year's. Michigan is on the February agenda, followed by Toronto, Texas and the group's headquarters at the Kutz Leadership Academy in Warwick, N.Y.
``Most of the officers in the past have been college students,'' she explained. ``It's easier for them to fit the travel in.''
Despite the busy schedule, Tamar manages to keep up with the usual activities of a highly motivated high school senior (National Honor Society and what she refers to as ``senior stuff''), along with a couple of not so usual ones.
For more than two years now she has been a newspaper correspondent, writing at least one movie review a month. And, one evening every week, she does clerical work in the office of a local counseling group. That's good experience for what she hopes will become her life's work.
Currently she's a candidate for early decision at James Madison University where she plans to major in education and minor in journalism. Her long term goal, however, should be a surprise to no one who is familiar with her NAFTY work.
``I would like, someday, to become a rabbi,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by JO-ANN CLEGG
Although she has a word processor, Tamar Anitai's primary tool as
vice president of American Federation of Temple Youth is a
telephone. ``Some evenings I may talk to people in as many as five
different states,'' the First Colonial High School senior says.
by CNB