Summer Camp brings Jewish Learning to Life

by Robert Lichtman

Why do children learn while sitting in circles during the summer and in parallel rows during the rest of the year?

Those children are not learning just when they sit in that circle; they are learning when they are boating, playing ball or singing in the chadar ochel (dining hall). They are learning when they have late night talks with their counselors. They are learning when they go on a hike. Children in Jewish summer camps are learning while they sit in their bunks, while they walk by the way, when they lie down, and when they rise up. Children in Jewish summer camps experience Jewish life 24 / 7 in a joyous peer environment. Summer camp brings Jewish learning to life, and that is why The Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life has been promoting this powerful Jewish identity-shaping experience since the agency was created just a bit over three years ago.

Having Jewish summer camp on our agenda was one thing, but when UJC MetroWest and the Foundation for Jewish Camp got behind this effort, we starting making history. Over the past three summers, this UJC initiative has provided almost $200,000 in Campership Incentive Grants to nearly 200 MetroWest children who were attending Jewish residential camp for the first time. Based on that modest beginning, The Partnership now hosts the MetroWest Jewish Camp Enterprise, a full-time effort to promote Jewish residential camping to MetroWest families. For this coming summer of 2010 alone, the new MetroWest Jewish Camp Enterprise will allocate another $150,000 for 150 MetroWest children to have a first summer in an environment that builds Jewish friendships and Jewish experiences upon Jewish values. Over the next few years, we plan to continue to offer large numbers of campership grants to first time campers. The return on the investment in these children is extraordinary: about 80% of the children who attend Jewish summer camp once keep on going to camp for several summers thereafter. And thereafter, Jewish campers go on to become Jewish leaders in their families, congregations, and communities.

The MetroWest Jewish Camp Enterprise is a new communal venture co-chaired by Archie Gottesman and Gary DeBode, as well as Elisa and Rob Bildner. The Bildners are also the founders of the Foundation for Jewish Camp, the highly successful national organization that has helped to put Jewish camping at the forefront of the American Jewish community’s agenda in recent years. The FJC is a key partner in the MetroWest Jewish Camp Enterprise, supporting our local initiative with matching grants and vital expertise and resources.

Our goal is not only to continue with the Campership Incentive Grant program but to make Jewish residential camp an attractive, more compelling option for all MetroWest families, and to promote the value and the values of Jewish summer camp so enthusiastically and effectively that the number of MetroWest children attending summer residential camps will double from the current level of about 1,000 to 2,000 campers by 2015.

In prior generations, Jewish identity was forged in distinctly Jewish neighborhoods that surrounded young people with Jewish ideas and ideals. Those communities rarely exist in suburban New Jersey. Jewish summer camps are new “neighborhoods” where Jewish identity is developed and life-long Jewish friendships are formed. The Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life is proud to sponsor this new UJC initiative to promote Jewish residential summer camps. Our community is blessed to have such a numerous and wide variety of camps that provide rich, experiential learning to build meaningful, relevant, and joyous Jewish identity — that’s what we mean when we say that our mission is to bring Jewish learning to life.

To learn more about the MetroWest Jewish Camp Enterprise, please be in touch with its manager, Tracy Levine, , (973) 929-2970.

To apply for a $1,000 Campership Incentive Grant for this summer, please visit www.onehappycamper.org.

Robert Lichtman is the Executive Director of The Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life.

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