Transformimg Jewish Lives
Jewish Summer Camps: Director’s Cut
From eJewishPhilanthropy:
At age 8, when Molly Hott stepped off the bus to complete her first summer of overnight camp, she told her parents she was going to "do this forever."
She wasn't kidding. Hott spent the next 14 years of her life as a camper, waitress, bunk counselor, group leader, events specialist and division head. As a college student, she pursued an independent study on camp programming and camp's influence on children. Now, she is director of the 92nd Street Y's Passport NYC camp in New York.
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The Magic of Jewish Summer Camp
From The Huffington Post:
Professor Arnold Eisen, a scholar of American Judaism and the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, proclaimed, "Nothing I do to build Jewish life, Jewish education, or the Jewish community is more important than getting more kids to Jewish camps."
Those are strong words from the ivory tower and quite the endorsement of Jewish summer camp. But Eisen wasn't the only head of a major Jewish academic institution who lauded Jewish summer camping at the Foundation for Jewish Camp's recent Leaders Assembly. He shared the stage with Richard Joel and Rabbi David Ellenson, the presidents of the Orthodox and Reform academies respectively, who both agreed that the answer to Jewish continuity can be found at summer camp.
Read the full article in The Huffington Post...
Sharansky lauds Jewish camps’ vital role in FSU
From The New Jersey Jewish News:
Former Soviet refusenik Natan Sharansky recalled the dark days under the oppressive communist regime when Jews were forbidden to explore their Jewish heritage.
Speaking March 13 at the closing program of the three-day Foundation for Jewish Camp Leaders Assembly in New Brunswick, Sharansky recounted the forced assimilation of much of Eastern European Jewry.
Read the full article in The New Jersey Jewish News...
Grants boost camp staff training, Israel education summer programs
From The San Francisco Jweekly:
The National Ramah Commission and The Union for Reform Judaism's Camping Movement announced a joint program to develop training for specialty staff before the 2012 summer camp season.
A grant of $144,000 from the Avi Chai Foundation, to be shared equally by the two camping movements, will fund training programs including professional development, sharing of best practices, and building a network of camp specialty staff.
Read the full article in Jweekly...
Reach Beyond the Bunk: Leaders Assembly 2012
From eJewishPhilanthropy:
With a theme of "Reach Beyond the Bunk," this year's Foundation for Jewish Camp Leaders Assembly took place from March 11-13th in New Brunswick, NJ. In true manifestation of the strength of the growing field of Jewish camping, over 650 were in attendance; in representation of beyond-the-bunk reach, only around 40% were camping professionals – the rest were comprised of lay leaders, Jewish Federation and foundation representatives, and others who care deeply about Jewish camp and its future.
The innovative conference structure took the traditional conference phenomenon of so many productive conversations taking place in the hallways outside sessions and made those hallway conversations the substance of the program. Participants crowd-sourced over 600 session ideas, culled down to 43 open-source sessions on the topics that the participants themselves wanted to talk about, from "Making the Case: Selling Jewish Camp to Parents" to "To Plug In or Not to Plug In: Thinking about Technology at Camp" and "Keeping Up With the Changing Face of the Jewish World."
Read the full article in eJewishPhilanthropy...
Foundation for Jewish Camp Receives $8.6m. Grant
From eJewishPhilanthropy:
With an $8.6 million grant, The Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC) is launching Specialty Camps Incubator II. The funding is being provided by The Jim Joseph and AVI CHAI Foundations. The second cycle of this program will be used to open four new nonprofit Jewish overnight camps dedicated to a specific skill or area of interest while introducing and integrating Jewish culture.
"The five camps that opened in summer 2010 as a result of the first Specialty Camps Incubator are a notable success," says Al Levitt, Board President, Jim Joseph Foundation. "They exceeded their enrollment benchmarks by 146% in the first two years. They provided a new path to Jewish camp for many children: 40% of campers who attended these specialty camps reported that they had never attended Jewish camp before and 66% said that they only went to Jewish camp because they were attracted to one of the specialties." Additionally, 74% of campers' parents reported that the experience positively impacted their Jewish identity and 65% testified to positive changes in campers' Jewish knowledge further aligning the successes of this program with the missions of all three foundations.
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Jewish Teen Funders Network Launches Teen Foundations at 20 Summer Camps
From eJewishPhilanthropy:
New York, March 6, 2012 – The Jewish Teen Funders Network (JTFN), a youth philanthropy project of the Jewish Funders Network, has awarded grants to 20 summer camps from across denominational lines and around North America. As participants in the Camping Pilot Program, these grantees will receive $1,500 and leadership training to develop high-quality teen philanthropy programs.
Recognizing the potential of Jewish youth philanthropy programs to empower and educate teens about effective philanthropy and Jewish values, JTFN will work closely with grantees on program development and staff training. Summer camps from around the Jewish community demonstrated overwhelming interest in the pilot program, with twice as many applications as slots available.
Read the full article in eJewishPhilanthropy...
Summer Camps to Receive $3.6m. for Israel Education Project
From eJewishPhilanthropy:
The Larry and Lillian Goodman Foundations has awarded a four-year, $2.3 million matching grant to the iCenter and the Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC) to establish a joint project, the Goodman Camping Initiative for Modern Jewish History. A matching component has been fulfilled by The Marcus Foundation and the AVI CHAI Foundation, who are jointly contributing a $1.3 million grant to the program.
The initiative targets independent Jewish camps and builds upon other Israel education initiatives in the camping world funded by these foundations and others. The objective of this new initiative is to enhance and expand the modern Israeli historical and cultural teachings at nonprofit independent Jewish overnight camps, forging an even greater connection between campers and the Jewish state.
Read the full article in eJewishPhilanthropy...
Once A Camper, Always A Camper
From The Jewish Week:
Leah Kaplan Robins is only half-joking when she calls herself Mrs. Ramah. An alumna of the Conservative movement's Camp Ramah in New England, she met her future husband — "Mr. Ramah" — there and a few years ago took the initiative with a friend to organize a 10-year reunion.
Yet so far, she hasn't attended many alumni events sponsored by Ramah itself, and the network of 11 North American camps wants her, and others like her, back.
Read the full article in The Jewish Week...