Building Jewish continuity through camping

Jewish residential camping is widely recognized as a transformative experience for young people and one of the prime building blocks of Jewish continuity. The key problem is that Jewish camping is tremendously underutilized, with the vast majority of Jewish parents choosing secular, for-profit camps for their children. Only about 10 percent of eligible Jewish children are enrolled in Jewish overnight camps, according to The Steinhardt Social Research Institute.

Here in the MetroWest community, JCF is working closely with other agencies on initiatives intended to increase the number of local children who attend residential Jewish camps, while also seeking to enhance and secure one of our community’s treasures: the New Jersey “Y” Camps, considered one of the premier Jewish camping programs in the nation.

Camperships
MetroWest is one of only a few communities nationwide selected to pilot a program of “camperships,” or stipends, intended to encourage first-time campers to choose Jewish camp. This began successfully in summer 2007 with approximately 30 MetroWest children receiving stipends of $1,000 each. The JCF, working with the Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life and area camps, is seeking to build additional support for this program, using the leverage of a national match program sponsored by Foundation for Jewish Camping and the Jewish Funders Network.

New Jersey "Y" Camp Endowment Initiative
In addition, JCF MetroWest is working closely with the leadership of the NJ "Y" Camps on an endowment campaign intended to provide significant long-term support for the first time in the camps’ more than 80-year history. A sizable endowment will enable the camps to continue to be at the forefront of the Jewish camping movement, while remaining accessible to all Jewish families through generous scholarships. The NJ "Y" Camps endowment initiative, to be officially launched in the fall of 2007, will help secure a strong and vibrant future for Jewish camping in our community.