Summer Camp!

Everything has been so lazy lately... I love summertime.  Always have loved summer, even when I was a girl it was my favorite season!  I love the heat, the swimming, the relaxing time off... and especially CAMP.


I grew up going to a Jewish overnight camp called Capital Camps which was fed largely by Washington DC-area Jews.  I LIVED for going to this camp every summer.  I loved the music, the friends, being on my own, and tho I didn't know it until later, the "living Judaism" part of camp.  By this I mean the Hebrew songs and names of buildings/ activites/ etc that taught me an immense amount of Hebrew without my stepping foot into a classroom.  I loved the week shaped by Shabbat, how we set the day aside from the rest of the week as a holy day-- we all wore white, had special fun services outdoors, and spent much of Saturday relaxing by the pool.  I credit my camp experience with putting me on the path to Jewish leadership which I am following today.

Lena, at 5, is going to a real day camp for the first summer.  Today was visiting day and I enjoyed so much seeing how she spends her time outside at the camp, learning to swim, watching rockets filed with "squinkies" being launched into the sky... eating on picnic benches under the trees for cookout.  During this cookout, I looked over and some kids were having cheese sandwiches instead of hamburgers and hotdogs.  I startled for a second, thinking-- how at camp could they be mixing milk and meat????  Then of course I reminded myself that this wasn't a Jewish camp.  Oops!  :)

When the time comes to choose Lena's overnight camp (if I can be apart from her for that long!!!) there's no doubt in my mind tho that she'll go to a Jewish camp, most likely one of the URJ (Union for Reform Judaism) camps like Camp Eisner in the Berkshires.  Perhaps even next summer our family will go and volunteer for a few weeks to give her and Mikaela a taste of Jewish overnight camp.  After all, their parents met at another URJ camp-- Kutz Camp-- 11 summers ago.  I'm not concerned about my kids' Jewish identities (kids of a rabbi and a cantor!) but I don't want either of them to miss the Jewish camp experience either.

If you're thinking of a camp for your child consider one of the Reform Movement's camps-- or any other Jewish camp-- and consider it an investment your child's Jewish future. Even if they don't turn out to be a rabbi or a cantor, you'll help them create a positive Jewish identity and have a great time doing it.