AZJL_Mar13

Recommendations

Info

[CAMPS] 38 MARCH 2013 | ARIZONA JEWISH LIFE CAMP Jewish By Eileen R. Warshaw, Ph.D. Jewish summer camps are a uniquely American invention, an invention that over the years has changed the lives of countless Jewish youngsters. Founded in 1883 by the Jewish Working Girls Vacation Society, located in New York, the first Jewish summer camp was a girls’ camp. camps change to meet the needs of each new era City youth head off to Camp Judaea.
Campers enjoy Camp Charles Pearlstein (now Camp Stein) in Prescott, AZ, in 2011. “Going to Jewish camp has made me a prouder Jew because being at camp just makes me feel more spiritual in general with Judaism. It has changed me for the better to grow and be a better leader to everyone I love. It has changed my life positively; it has brought me my best friends, family and the love of my life.” – Brooke Wolinsky, Camp Daisy and Harry Stein (formerly Camp Charles Pearlstein), 2004-2012 e concept expanded widely at the turn of the 20th century as a means of giving inner-city youth, many of whom were European immigrants living in the squalor of settlement houses or orphanages, a chance to breathe the unpolluted air of the countryside. Focused on social services, some of the camps directed their programming as a way to accelerate new immigrant children into the American Jewish way of life. In the polio epidemic of the 1940s and ’50s, many inner-city youth were sent to summer camps in the belief that the fresh air and camp activities would help to stop the spread of the crippling disease. In the 1950s and ’60s the focus of the camps shifted from social services to educational experiences and Jewish identity. ese fresh-air programs blended spiritual, educational and recreational components. e campers were Jewish, and the camps were run by Jewish communities with Jewish counselors, in a nurturing and supportive Jewish manner. e camps oered common Jewish experiences, building lifelong friendships in the fun of the outdoors. “Summer sleepover camp is where I learned condence and forged lifelong friendships,” states 1950s camper Dr. Barry Friedman, of Tucson. “It taught me to ‘give it a shot,’ I couldn’t fail. My experiences at camp, what I learned there about myself and life in general, have been instrumental in directing me along a Jewish life.” ere is broad agreement about the power of all summer camps as a transformational experience for children, but that has been especially true at Jewish camps. e eects of camping on Jewish identity are well documented. Jewish Camping 2000, by Gary Tobin and Meryle Weinstein, cites an Atlanta Federation study that showed that adults who attended Jewish camp as children are more than 50% more likely to belong to a synagogue than those who did not attend camp. Over the centuries, Jewish camps have evolved to meet the community’s most pressing needs. No longer focused on providing refuge from the squalor of the inner city, today the Jewish camping experience may be specically focused on celebrating the art of Yiddish, computer science and the Kabbalah, kosher cuisine or Jewish ethics in the teenager’s hightech world. Today, with synagogue membership dwindling, the struggle to instill Jewish leadership in the next generation is a daunting task. e Jewish camp of today is one of the crucial tools being utilized to build pride of heritage in today’s youth, the Jewish leaders of tomorrow. Camp programs have denitely changed, but yesterday and today Jewish campers still sit around campres in the same camps their grandparents attended. Campers still ll the night skies with Israeli songs old and new. Jewish camps continue to build Jewish pride, combat assimilation and build friendships that last a lifetime. Sometimes those friendships become a Jewish family and the next generation of Jewish campers. e statement above proves that while Jewish camps will continue to adapt to our community’s needs, some things stay eternally the same, and the mission of the Jewish camp is fullled today as it was yesterday. ARIZONA JEWISH LIFE | MARCH 2013 39
Page 1 and 2: THE JEWISH LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE FOR A
Page 4 and 5: Unlike most investors, none of Stra
Page 6 and 7: Table of Contents MARCH 2013/Adar-N
Page 8 and 9: Editor’s Letter How can we decide
Page 10 and 11: ISRAEL BONDS THIS PASSOVER From Exo
Page 12 and 13: [UPFRONT] HONORING CHARLES ARNOLD P
Page 14 and 15: 14 MARCH 2013 | ARIZONA JEWISH LIFE
Page 16 and 17: [PASSOVER] HOME HOLIDAY Observed at
Page 18 and 19: [PASSOVER] Carlos Galindo-Elvira bl
Page 20 and 21: [PASSOVER] CHEF’ S By Lisa Glickm
Page 22 and 23: [PASSOVER] Clean Up,Cash In Use Pas
Page 24 and 25: [COVER STORY] horsing around By Deb
Page 26 and 27: [COVER STORY] Kevin Rosenbaum and J
Page 28 and 29: [COVER STORY] e Rosenbaums are stil
Page 30 and 31: Shoshanna black-and-white shift dre
Page 32 and 33: [CAMPS] Letters from Camp An attemp
Page 34 and 35: [CAMPS] BB Camp cultivates confiden
Page 36 and 37: [CAMPS] CAMP STEIN WELCOMES NEW DIR
Page 40 and 41: [FOOD] By A. Noshman Remember when
Page 42 and 43: [FOOD] Demystifying the Grape By Ma
Page 44 and 45: [ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT] The Storyt
Page 46 and 47: [ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT] By Janet A
Page 48 and 49: [FITNESS] By Debra Rich Gettleman E
Page 50 and 51: [SENIORS] LA SIENA RESIDENTS enjoy
Page 52 and 53: [SENIORS] Helping Aging Parents Tac
Page 54 and 55: [ISRAEL/AN ISRAELI IN AMERICA] The
Page 56 and 57: [ISRAEL/AN AMERICAN IN ISRAEL] Isra
Page 58 and 59: [SINGLES] ROCKING the single life:
Page 60 and 61: [SINGLES] Searching for Love in All
Page 62 and 63: [TRAVEL] Great Choral Synagogue The
Page 64 and 65: [TRAVEL] While two armed policemen
Page 66 and 67: [VOLUNTEER] Volunteering: 66 MARCH
Page 68 and 69: [HAPPENINGS/FACES] Centennial Celeb
Page 70 and 71: March 9-10 Devoured Culinary Classi
Page 72: What does well-being look like? Car

AZJL_Mar13

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?