Camps and Summer Fun

It was the summer of 1963 and I was 10 going on 11. I had never attended camp before. My Auntie E worked for the Jewish Federation in New York and had discussed with my parents sending me to the Hebrew Education Society’s two-week camp with her daughter (and… Read more »

Ryley Katz at camp in 1994

I always thought it was cliché when someone said “one decision changed the course of my entire life.” That is, until I said it myself. When I was 11 years old, my mom decided to give me respite from hot Arizona summers by sending me to summer camp. She… Read more »

(L-R) Maya, Shelby, Randie and Joel Collier (Shaun Roby)

Probably not many people have attended Jewish summer camp for as many years as Randie Collier. She spent 13 summers at Steve and Shari Sadek Family Camp Interlaken JCC. Camp Interlaken is in Eagle River, Wis., a five-hour bus ride north of Collier’s hometown of Milwaukee. When Collier aged… Read more »

Nostalgia about summer traditions notwithstanding, Jewish camps have changed dramatically from a generation ago. Camp’s value for Jewish education and identity-building is now a major focus of communal attention. Major Jewish foundations, federations and organizations are investing heavily in the sector. Many camps have become more intentional about incorporating… Read more »

(L-R) Shailah, Alexandra and Jordan Lowe, granddaughters of Tucsonans Anne and David Lowe, at Camp Young Judaea Midwest.

All three of my children went to Camp Young Judaea Midwest in Waupaca, Wis., where Young Judaeans from Tucson still go. At the time we lived in Milwaukee, so the camp was about a two and a half hour drive from our home. Jonathan, Caren and Ethan loved the… Read more »

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Tucsonan Gabe Lehrer, left, and Sheldon Donenberg at Camp Ramah in Ojai, Calif., in 2011

Tucsonan Gabe Lehrer is not quite 16, but he is already working on his second professionally recorded CD, as half of the singer-songwriter duo Sheldon and Gabriel. Gabe met Sheldon Donenberg at Camp Ramah in Ojai, Calif., in the summer of 2011. Gabe, the son of Mimi Algazi and… Read more »

Jamie Klein

While many college students see summer as an opportunity to take on internships or find a summer job that can help pay for their expenses during the academic year, University of Arizona communications sophomore Amanda Silverman only sees summer as one thing: time to go to camp. “I don’t… Read more »

JCC Camp Interlaken has given me many memories, from the Maccabiah games to the beauty of Lake Finley. I truly love every moment I am there. I know that I have made long lasting friendships and my best friend is from Interlaken. Camp Interlaken is my home away from… Read more »

Josh Schachter: photographer, educator, environmentalist, storyteller

It’s a big deal when any organization wins a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation grant. In November, Pima County Public Library learned that it did just that, receiving $100,000 from the foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services to design a mobile media lab, youth… Read more »

Teddy Weinberger

Since 1993 the Jewish Agency has been running a network of summer camps in the former Soviet Union. The Agency describes these camps as “a cultural lifeline to Jewish identity.” These summer camps are supported by several Russian Jewish philanthropists and by Jewish Federations in such cities as Atlanta,… Read more »

Bills or bug juice? With the economic recovery still struggling to take hold, many American Jewish families are finding they face a difficult question as deadlines for summer camp enrollment approach: Can they both pay their bills and send their kids to Jewish overnight camp? “It’s a difficult decision,”… Read more »

Hundreds of thousands of Jewish camp alumni — and their parents — have long known that those halcyon weeks spent at Jewish summer camp don’t just cement lifelong friendships, they strengthen Jewish identity. Now they have it in writing. A new study on the long-term impact of Jewish overnight… Read more »

Philanthropist Harold Grinspoon, right, visits one of the camps his founddation is helping. Photo: Harold Grinspoon Foundation)

When Frank Silberlicht became the executive director of Camp Young Judaea in Wimberley, Texas, in 1998, he had no idea that his job eventually would change from getting a camp up and running to being the CEO of a midsized nonprofit. But over the past decade or so, as… Read more »