For Chabad Girl Scouts Troop, No Cookies But Plenty Of Fun

What’s a Girl Scout troop that doesn’t sell Girl Scout cookies — even Thin Mints with the OU seal of kosher approval?

A frum troop run by Chabad.

Girl Scout Troop 3131, on the Upper West Side, is currently the only all-Jewish girls troop currently serving Manhattan and the first-ever Chabad-sponsored Girl Scout troop, as far as its leaders are aware.

And while the young girls in the troop can’t sell the iconic cookies (they don’t have Chalav Yisrael certification observed by Chabad leaders), they’ll be doing kayaking and camping just like other Girl Scouts — and earning merit badges.

The troop officially formed in September, under the joint leadership of Sarah Alevsky, youth director at Chabad of the Upper West Side, and Keren Blum, Chabad emissary to Columbia University. In addition to Alevsky and Blum’s daughters, nearly 25 girls have joined the troop, and they hail from a mix of public and Jewish day schools.

“We’re doing it all through a Jewish lens, but we’re getting the badges,” Alevsky said.

For Tzipora Cohen, whose 9-year-old daughter Orli is a troop member, joining the Girl Scouts wasn’t an obvious choice.

“The truth is at first, I wasn’t sure about it,” she said. “My past connection to Girl Scouts was just the clichéd representation of it in cookies. But we’ve had really good experiences with all programs of Chabad of the Upper West Side. I was intrigued that they were taking on this mainstream USA idea.”  Continue reading…