The New Promised Land: Maine's Summer Camps for Jewish Youth ...

Council and Phillip Lown, a successful Jewish business man, had founded Camp
Lown in order to provide Maine’s Jewish children with religious education.
Specifically, the camp prepared boys for their Bar Mitzvah ceremonies (a coming of
age ceremony, where Jewish boys read from the Torah), which was appealing to
Maine families because there were few preparation services despite the fact that
Jews believed the ceremony was important, and “instilled pride in their heritage.” 193
Lown, the camp’s main benefactor, wanted to open the camp to Jewish children
from other states. However, the Jewish Community Council was adament about
keeping the camp for Jewish Mainers and rejected Lown’s proposal, a decision
which led the camp into ruin and forced it to close in 1969.
From 1954 to 1987, there were two other Jewish educational camps in
Maine: Camp Naomi for Girls in East Raymond and Camp Joseph for Boys in
Harrison. At both camps, campers ate kosher meals, and chanted traditional
blessings before meals and a shortened blessing after meals. They commemorated
Shabbat by celebrating with challah, wine, and candle lighting on Friday night and a
havdallah service on Saturday evenings. 194 Additionally, the campers were allowed
to sleep in on Saturday mornings, which signified that the Sabbath was a day of rest
for them. 195 Furthermore, the camps occasionally taught Israeli dancing.
Camp Naomi and Camp Joseph merged into just Camp Naomi in the mid
1970s. According to Nancy Silverman Levinsky, a Camp Naomi alumnus herself, the
families who sent their children to Naomi and Joseph (even in its earliest years)
193 Celia Risen, Some jewels of Maine: Jewish Maine Pioneers (Pittsburgh: Dorrance
Publishing Co., 1997), 121.
194 Levinsky, “Summer Camps with a Jewish Twist.”
195 Ibid.
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