Summer time and the Living is Jewish
DAVIDSON, JESSICA
Jewish Camps and Jewish Identity JESSICA DAVIDSON Summer Time AND THE LIVING If JEWISH Melissa Kaplan will never forget crouching in the comer that very first day. Not knowing a soul. Trying...
...Nearly all the camps operate each summer at full capacity...
...Everything is con-ne< ted in .1 that (i eates :i total Jewish environment...
...Amen...
...That was certainly the case for Lauren Shaham, who spent 12 summers at B'nai B'rith Perlman Camp in Starlight, Pennsylvania...
...Now I sometimes wish they had camp for people in their twenties...
...There are people who will try to sell you on the notion that camp is the answer," said Jonathan Woocher, executive vice president of the Jewish Education Service of North America, and the husband of a woman whom he met sure enough at Camp Ramah...
...We see ourselves as educating communities, in which every person, from the smallest child to the camp director, will grow in education, Jewish depth and self-understanding...
...I remember Tisha b'Av being this very emotional thing...
...hm yn'axth shittom uleiiiu ih^i...
...Campers experience it...
...I think it had a major impact on my Jewish identity," she said...
...It's really the kids and the staff who do all of the Jewish content, so that young people are learning thati they can do Jewish things themselves...
...At camp, we all came from similar backgrounds...
...The ability to impact on a kid in an emotional way can only happen at a camp where you develop personal relationships with the kids and they feel they have role models," said Jeff Silverstein, director of Camp Tel Yehudah...
...You weren't an oddity...
...camp really introduced me to a Jewish community," recalls Shaham, 23, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania...
...Our point is that you need to be exposed to religion and tradition to make your personal decision...
...Among adults who are actively involved in the Jewish community, however, more than a third attended a Jewish camp...
...In fact, camp may have a su^onger impact on a child's Jewish identity than Hebrew school...
...Educators agree...
...Tin1 words burst forth from every mouth in the room, "Oseh shalom bhummav...
...If it weren't for summer camp I wouldn't know what Tisha b'Av was,".said Shaham, referring to the fast day that commemorates the destruction of the ancient Temple...
...Before she knew it Melissa was singing, tt.mi ing and I Living tin- time of her life with more man of her newest, closest friends al (.Simp Tel Yehtidah in Barr^ille, N.Y "Every voice in that room sang," recalls Melissa, 17, of El Paso, Texas...
...Sheldon Dorph, Ramah's national director, says the camp's focus is to prepare the next generation of Jewish leaders...
...It's not taken out of context, like leaving Little League to go to Hebrew School and sitting and listening to someone teach you about Judaism and then going home to watch television...
...where the goal is not jtisl to learn about religion but to learn without realizing it...
...It mi us out that sending your kids to Camp Hiawatha may turn them into great swimmers but not necessarily commit ted Jews...
...To achieve that goal, as much care is spent on educating the staffers (aged 18 to 25and over 80 percent Ramah alumni) as on the children...
...11 was very moving," Welcome to the Jewish camp experience, where the drudgery of Hebrew school is replaced by the thrill of Maccabiah (color war...
...They feel it...
...Sure enough, Melissa says, what struck her most about Camp Tel Yehudah wasn't the plurality but rather the solidarity being with people who sang the same songs, chanted the same prayers and shared the same heritage, if not all the same opinions...
...It makes the internalization that much more powerful...
...It includes texts, Jewish values and modern Jewish issues...
...What we do in arts and crafts is make sure our kids are making Shabbat candles and hqudaiah sets...
...It was an amazing experience because it brought ns all together in one voire...
...It was a very sorrowful day and a very moving experience...
...Silverstein, whose Camp Tel Yehudah is part of the Zionist but non-sectarian Young Judaea movement, says that camps like his, though not associated with one of the religious movements, offer the same commitment to life in an integrated Jewish environment...
...Perhaps the strongest sign of how Jewish camps differ from secular ones is Lauren's most vivid memory of all those summers not falling in love, or winning color war (both of which, she says, were also highlights) but celebrating the saddest day in the Jewish calendar...
...I didn't grow up in a very Jewish area...
...More so than in other camps, Jewish study is a major part of what we do...
...But without schools, an Israel experience and a committed family, I don't know what the impact would have been...
...It was certainly the linchpin experience in my own Jewish growth...
...We don't see ourselves as summer camps," said Dorph...
...The point here is to create a Jewish community with a certain level of observance even for those who don't observe it every day," he explained...
...We asked ourselves challenging questions I had never thought about...
...With six overnight camps in North America, Ramah services 4,500 children a year and employs 1,200 college and graduate students...
...I always dated more people in camp than at home, because they were Jewish...
...And then, like a miracle, it was over...
...Eduardo Rauch, co-director of the Melton Center, a research organization that prepares curricula for Hebrew schools...
...kol Yixrael, veimru amen" (May God who makes peace in the heavens make peace among ns and for all of Israel, and let its say...
...ne Jewish camp particularly known for its matchmaking success is Camp Ramah, run under the auspices of the Conservative movement, where romances are rampant among the staff, and many of the directors are married to Ramah alumni...
...It's not as though you can send your kids to one of these camps and then be off the hook the rest of the year, secure in a guarantee that they will have kosher homes and Jewish spouses two decades down the line...
...Trying to look inconspicuous...
...Where I live there's a lot of ignorance, and you're not so quick to say you're a Jew...
...It was my first introduction to why you should date Jewish boys," she explains...
...Often kids who don't have another Jewish experience are attracted to Judaism in college because of their camp experiences...
...Whatever happened to the days when sending a child to Hebrew school, having him or her bar/bal-mitzvahed and keeping ajewish home were enough...
...Less than one Jewish child in 10 attends a Jewish camp each year...
...Suddenly, someone grabbed her hand and pulled her into a circle...
...Why can't the kids go to secular camp with their friends from school and just have a good lime...
...They had a torchlight procession to the auditorium where we would have a presentation about the Holocaust, or other examples of Jewish oppression...
...The old joke is that Jewish parents send their kids to camps with Indian names and (heir kids learn how to make moccasins," said Rabbi Allan Smith, director of the youth division of L'nion of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC), which runs the Reform movements National Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY) camps...
...They live it...
...We don't see that the Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist or Orthodox way to pray is the right way...
...It was an unbearable moment all too familiar to any adolescent...
...Praying that someone anyone would talk to her...
...Wondering if she could somehow fade from the face of the earth...
...Another legacy of her camp experience, says Lauren, is the importance placed on marrying within the faith...
...where your 12-ycar-old's heart may go pitter-patter for the very first time and your 18-vear-old son can meet some nice Jewish girls before going off to college...
...Of course a word of caution is in store for those who think that camp is a panacea...
...It's probably the most valuable experience," said Dr...
...When you grow up in a rural area, you have to spend a lot of time explainingjudaism to non-Jewish people...
...After Shabhat services, you don't do square dancing, you do Israeli dancing...
...We teach participatory Judaism...
...Every activity we do relates to Jewish life...
...We're creating a total Jewish community that you might not experience at home...
Vol. 18 • February 1993 • No. 1
