Bulletin08.20.2011 -Eikev

Inspiration, Insights & Ideas
Bringing Torah lessons to LIFE!
Largest Jewish Camp Network in World
Turns 55
By Malina Saval and Joshua Runyan
I n
the spring of 1956, faculty of the central Chabad-Lubavitch
grade-school yeshiva in New York faced the distinctly modern
problem of summer vacation: They had no place to send their
students to continue their studies during the summer months.
A Lubavitch overnight boys’ camp had been established in the 1940s
in Montreal, and since 1953, Camp Emunah in upstate New York
provided a Lubavitch summer camp option for Jewish girls.
But the New York students had nowhere to go and Rabbi Moshe
Lazar sought out a solution. Just 22 years old at the time, Lazar
approached the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of
righteous memory, for guidance. On the face of it, the issue was
relatively simple: The modern educational calendar had created a
block of time in which kids were frequently without structure.
But as so often happened when the Rebbe addressed a “problem,” he
advised that this particular challenge actually offered a unique
opportunity.
Yes, there should be boys’ camp, the Rebbe responded. But it would
be different: It would leverage the beauty of rural surroundings to
provide a Jewish atmosphere, coupled with the warmth of Chasidic
life, in a manner not possible in a year-round school environment. It
would serve youngsters from both Jewish day schools and public
schools and would allow each of them to partake of their favorite
summer activities on the one hand, while simultaneously nurturing
their spiritual identities on the other.
Unlike other camps of the era, which served to protect religious
students from wandering aimlessly through the summer, this camp
would offer an open door to attract new students to the beauty of
Jewish life.
“There were a few Jewish camps in existence, but they were not
doing much in the way of reaching out to children that were not
already exposed to their Jewish backgrounds,” explains Lazar, now 76
years old and a Chabad-Lubavitch emissary in Milan. “The Rebbe was
very enthusiastic and with his blessing and constant involvement,
we were able to successfully turn our camp idea into a reality.”
In April that year, with nary a few months to get things in order,
Lazar rented a property in Ellenville, N.Y. The Rebbe named the camp
Gan Israel, literally “Garden of Israel” in honor of Rabbi Israel ben
Eliezer, the 17th-century founder of Chasidism known as the Baal
Shem Tov.
“The Rebbe said that all children should be shown the greatest love
and from this love, they become closer to G‑d,” says Lazar. “The idea
behind Camp Gan Israel was to create a combination of the spiritual
and the material and show that there is no conflict between the two.
In this way children can lead full and enriched lives.”
Rabbi Abraham Shemtov, who first signed on as the camp’s learning
director and today serves as its executive director, recalls the Rebbe’s
directives as revolutionary. Far from merely comprising the two
identifies of a camp and a yeshiva, the uniqueness of Camp Gan
Israel lies in its ability to make each opposing strain inform and
strengthen the other. In short, Camp Gan Israel is “a camp on the
outside and a yeshiva within,” the Rebbe would later emphasize.
“Nobody had thought that this was possible to do,” explains
Shemtov, who also serves as chairman of Agudas Chasidei Chabad,
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the worldwide umbrella organization of Chabad-Lubavitch. “Summer
camp was always either a place devoid of the protections offered by
a yeshiva environment, or was solely concerned on essentially
relocating the yeshiva to the countryside.”
The Rebbe offered a third way, continues Shemtov. “Camp could be a
new opportunity to do what the yeshiva couldn’t do. It could be an
island; it could provide an overall 24-hour experience.”
(Educators today, backed by several recent studies, similarly point to
the immersive nature of camp as providing a unique opportunity to
instill and nurture Jewish values.)
Of the three times the Rebbe travelled outside of New York City after
ascending to the leadership of Chabad-Lubavitch, all three were to
the original Camp Gan Israel and Camp Emunah.
Offshoots of that first Gan Israel reflect the central importance the
Rebbe placed on the summer camp experience, says Shemtov. “Each
place may look different, but when you begin to pull at the strings,
you’ll find they each have the same foundation.”
The first summer brought together 92 boys. Today, 55 years later,
Camp Gan Israel, headquartered in Parksville, N.Y., represents the
largest network of Jewish camps in the world. Run by Chabad Houses
and affiliated institutions in more than 40 countries, including
Canada, Australia and Chile, its day and overnight programs serve
both boys and girls and cater to Jewish children of all backgrounds.
“I had the time of my life,” Jeffrey Klein fondly recalls of the 10 years
he spent as a child at Camp Gan Israel in Fenton, Mich., eight as a
camper, one as a waiter, and one as a certified lifeguard.
“The way they took religion and intertwined it with fun activities
such as sports, baseball, soccer and swimming was a very positive
experience for me,” he adds, “and, as a result, my religious
observance grew.”
Klein was so inspired by his camping experience – he celebrated his
Bar Mitzvah at camp in 1974, the summer he turned 13 – he
convinced his parents to keep a kosher home and enroll him in a
local Detroit-area yeshiva. Today, the prominent podiatrist has three
grown children, two of whom also attended Camp Gan Israel.
“The friends that I made at camp – the children of friends that I met
at camp – are worldwide,” says Klein, who, decades later, still sings
songs that he learned at camp as a seven-year-old, including the
Camp Gan Israel anthem. “A lot of people who went to this camp are
amazing” Jewish leaders.
Camp Gan Israel’s alumni include Rabbis Shmuel Lew, director of the
Lubavitch House School in London, and Rabbi Moshe Feller, director
of the Upper Midwest regional headquarters of Chabad-Lubavitch.
“The camp experience is attractive to all kinds of parents,” explains
Shemtov. “The Rebbe turned camp into a tremendous instrument in
attracting youth with little in the way of Jewish involvement, who
then were able to strengthen Judaism in their own families.”
Daniella Uminer, program director of the Chabad Jewish Center of
Martin and S. Lucie County, Fla., says that she and her husband
founded the local Camp Gan Israel before they established a Hebrew
school.
Their area has a small, assimilated Jewish population, she says. “We
started out with 15 kids and now we have at least 60. We’ve grown
over the years, and it’s been a great journey.”
What distinguishes Camp Gan Israel from a typical summer
camp is the one-on-one attention devoted to each child,