The Orthodox Union has announced a $3 million gift from board chair Avi Katz and his wife, Becky, in support of NCSY, its flagship youth movement.

The gift will establish a multiyear national initiative in support of Jewish identity programs for teenagers through the Jewish Student Union program, NCSY's network of extracurricular Jewish "clubs" at public schools across the United States and Canada. To be called the Katz Family Initiative Driving Impact in JSU, the effort will create a national directorship of JSU and fund new programmatic strategies to improve retention and students' transition to Jewish programs beyond club meetings, including a JSU Teen Leadership program and JSU Presidents' Conference designed to empower students to drive more engagement and commitment in their JSU clubs.

"JSU plays a critical program in the lives of so many Jewish teens across the continent and it's our hope that with this additional funding, they can impact even more teens during these formidable years as they grow to become the next generation of Jewish leaders," said Katz, who previously served as NCSY chair. "We hope that our investment will empower [the] team to make JSU the strong program it has the potential to be."