ORLANDO, FLORIDA– B’nai Brith Youth Organization, the biggest Jewish youth organization in the world, hits its centennial birthday in May 2024.

Every President’s Day weekend since the beginning of the organization in 1924, teens from around the world attend BBYO’s International Convention in a different U.S. state. The organization’s goal is to unite Jewish teens of all different backgrounds from around the world through programming, tradition, education, and leadership. 

This year, the organization has chapters in 60+ countries and currently has more than 70,000 members across the globe. 

BBYO promised big things for its centennial celebration– including speaker guest Ross Lynch who stars in Disney Channel’s “Austin and Ally” and is lead singer in The Driver Era. Girls were screaming the entirety of his interview. The Israeli delegation gifted him a “Bring Them Home” dog tag, and he put it on, showing his support for Israel. Later, when the entire international order gathered at the main stage, Lynch came out and sang four songs including The Driver Era’s hit “Fantasy.” Teens screamed with excitement to see their childhood crush so close to them. 

The reason Jewish teens from around the world unite in one place once a year is to celebrate and learn more about what Judaism means to them. Havdalah, the transition from one week to a new one, is always a moment of rejuvenation, but this one, in a room full of 4,000 Jewish teens singing the same melody used from North America to Europe was powerful and reminded teens of the community they will forever have through hardship. 

“My favorite part [of IC] was being a part of a room of thousands of Jewish teens who are proud to express their Jewish identities despite all of the hate,” explained Lindsey S. (‘25), a fellow deToledo student who also attended the convention. 

To be a part of an organization that is changing and benefitting the Jewish community every day is truly a spectacular feeling, but it’s hard to understand the physical change you are making as an individual until you are in a room with teens from places like Shanghai, Italy, Argentina, and across the US, standing for the same things and practicing the same values.