The Power and Presence of Summer Camp
By Rabbi Yair Robinson, Congregation Beth Emeth
We went away when we were young,
To find the person that we would become,
To find the person who was hidden somewhere inside.
“Stars In the Sky,” Rabbi Larry Milder
If there has been one consistent in the lives of Jewish youth in North America for the last century, it is the power and presence of summer camps. Whether day camps, like our Siegel JCC’s, or overnight camps like Pinemere, Harlam, Ramah and others, camp—as a concept, as an incubator of ideas and leadership, and as a force multiplier for Jewish life—has been profoundly formative in ways the originators could not have imagined.
Started in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to get Jewish children out of the inner cities and into the countryside, summer camp agendas and programming changed over time. Originally designed to facilitate immigrant children’s assimilation and acclimation to American life, soon they became ways of preserving either Hebrew or Yiddish language and culture, or encouraging engagement in Zionism, or deepening children’s connection to Jewish religious and spiritual practice—or sometimes all three. As Sandra Fox writes in her book The Jews of Summer: Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America, these efforts took on a greater urgency in the years after war and the Holocaust. The Baby Boom, the move to the suburbs, and assimilationism all led rabbis, educators, and community leaders to create institutions to convey Jewish culture, religion, and traditions, but also inspire Jewish kids to create new rituals and connections, an authentic Jewish experience.
And as anyone who has been to Jewish sleepaway camp will attest, these micro-communities—often led by teens and young adults not much older than the children attending—did exactly that, inspiring kids to deepen their connection to Judaism even as they immersed themselves in the culture of that camp. I had firsthand experience of how transformative camp can be. As a high schooler, I attended the Kutz Leadership Academy (yes, named for our own Milton and Hattie Kutz, z”l) which served Jewish teens interested in being youth group leaders—be they songleaders, social activists, or just teens eager to engage in social programming. There, we interfaced with rabbis and educators, as well as one another, and learned different leadership skill sets. More than that, Kutz, like many camps, became a place where new music and liturgies were created that influenced the rest of the movement. For example, Debbie Friedman (of “Mi Shebeirach” fame, among many other pieces) emerged first as a camper and songleader at various URJ camps. Likewise, the inclusion of the imahot—or names of the matriarchs—in the Amidah prayer, and the popular use of tikkun olam to mean social action and social justice, all first emerged from camp worship practice. Today, camps like Ramah Poconos lead the way on inclusion of developmentally delayed children, while other camps like Moshava are leading efforts to create non-gendered Hebrew terminology for nonbinary participants. Camp becomes a leadership incubator—to be sure, for rabbis and cantors and Jewish educators—but also for lay leaders in our congregations, for entertainers and musicians, as well as non-profit heads and political leaders like our own Melanie Ross-Levin (another Kutz alum).
As a faculty member at URJ’s Camp Harlam for 14 years and a Harlam parent for 10, I have watched how our kids are shaped, and how they shape modern Judaism. Seeing Jewish children and teenagers celebrate Shabbat and celebrate each other through traditional prayers, experience modern takes on the tradition set to guitar and drum, and often writing their own creative prayers about different Jewish values, is profoundly inspirational. Hearing kids use Hebrew expressions like cheder ochel (dining hall) and nikkayon (cleanup) and recite prayers such as hamotzi and birkat hamazon as casually as they would use English and living on Jewish time almost as they might in Israel, is remarkable. Of course, Camp Hebrew isn’t going to get you far at the Coffix in Afula (asking for the “Mir”, short for mirpa’ah, or health center, will get mostly confused looks), and not everything is about Judaism: there’s plenty of hiking and rock climbing, mountain biking and soccer playing, boating and swimming, arts and crafts, music, photography, and video design (I frequently get asked as a rabbi by congregants whether camp is “too Jewish”). But all of this is enhanced with song sessions after meals; spending time with young Israeli men and women from the mishlachat and speaking with them about the Land and People of Israel; and gathering for Shabbat, dressed all in white, on a hill overlooking the green mountains of the Poconos, celebrating under a canopy of leafy trees and blue sky; as well as engaging in the camp’s own songs, alma maters, traditions, and competitions.
And more than that, camp becomes a way for our kids to develop a kind of confidence, self-assurance, and skill set they might not be able to at home. In his book Homesick and Happy: How Time Away From Parents Can Help A Child Grow, child psychologist Michael Thompson makes a strong argument that time away at camp—free of technology, surrounded by peers as well as older kids, engaging in daily rituals as a group, and meeting challenges without teachers or parents swooping in to assist or smooth over difficulties—allow kids to grow emotionally and developmentally, learn to solve problems for themselves, gain greater independence, and return home each summer with greater resilience. The kid who is shy at home becomes the star of the camp play, the one who struggles expressing her feelings is the first to hug a crying bunkmate, and the one afraid of taking risks and making friends is the one laughing and crying with their friends after their turn on the rope swing.
All of these experiences at camp—and I would argue that they are all Jewish experiences—deliver a kind of authenticity one cannot capture easily at home or in synagogue. Their experience is unique and special, and one I would encourage you to consider for your own children or grandchildren this year. Talk to anyone who has sent their kids to camp, and they will wax rhapsodic about what a positive experience they had; how fun it was, the friends they made, each one ready to change the world for the better. And as Rabbi Larry Milder wrote for a camp alma mater, find the person hidden deep inside.
