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Supplement to Jewish News February 11, 2013
34 | Jewish News | Camp | February 11, 2013
One day they will be applying to the same universities.
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Give the gift of Friends for Life.Camp Airy for boys: Thurmont, MD · Camp Louise for girls: Cascade, MD
Februray 11, 2013 | Camp | Jewish News | 35
Changing choices of camp
Jewish News staff
With down jackets and
mismatched mittens
spilling from our hall
closets, summer seems
like a long, long, way off.
It’s not though; for most of our chil-
dren, school is almost two-thirds over.
Which means we need to begin thinking,
NOW, about summer camp.
Today’s camps aren’t like those of 50,
30, or even 10 years ago. There are so
many more considerations in 2013, with
our technologically connected world that
straddles the line between safety and
interference, communication and com-
pulsion, and our smarter and savvier
children.
Do we want to send our kids to a
camp that has few modern, technological
amenities—cabins with outside
showers and a brackish lake for
swimming? (Will they even attend
a camp like that?) Or would “hotel
camp” or “school camp” be pre-
ferred? Day or residential? Close
or far?
If camp rules require kids to
leave their cellphones, games and
Facebook friends at home, but has
classes in computer video editing
and a way for you to catch glimps-
es of them online, would they—or
you—consider it? Will sending kids
to a Jewish camp make a differ-
ence to them, or does it just matter
to parents?
In this special Summer Camp sec-
tion of the Jewish News, we gain insight
into camps that are banning electronic
gadgets but embracing technology, and
we learn about donors and funds set up
to help offset the costs of Jewish camps
(FYI—the Simon Family JCC Camp has
some scholarships available).
This is the first of two special Summer
Camp sections coming your way. Keep
an eye out for the next one, in the March
25 issue of the Jewish News. That issue
will include our annual camp guide,
which will provide local and national
camp listings and contact information,
along with some suggestions on getting
ready for and choosing a summer camp.
Let the camp songs begin!
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Photo courtesy Camp Airy
36 | Jewish News | Camp | February 11, 2013
Going iphone-lessCamps trying to ban gadgetswhile embracing technology
by Chavie Lieber
NEW YORK (JTA)—At a Jewish summer
camp in upstate New York, they’re giving
kids digital filmmaking classes and telling
them to leave their Nintendo Game Boys
at home. In Georgia, a camp is encourag-
ing face time with video pen pals rather
than time on iPods. In Wisconsin, a camp
has traded snail mail for scanned mail.
As technology oozes into every facet
of children’s lives, Jewish summer camps
are struggling with how to wean kids off
their gadgets—at least for the summer—
while using technology to improve the
camp experience.
“Once upon a time, kids were playing
cards at night, but camp is a very dif-
ferent place than it was 40 years ago,”
says Rabbi Paul Resnick, director of the
Conservative-affiliated Camp Ramah in
the Berkshires in Wingdale, N.Y. “Camps
need to keep up and evolve since technol-
ogy keeps changing on us.”
Many camps now have rules banning
gadgets such as cell phones, tablets,
laptop computers, iPods and gaming
devices. B’nai B’rith’s Beber Camp
in Mukwonago, Wis., has a no-screen
policy. Camp Morasha in Lakewood, Pa.,
bans any device that can connect to the
Internet.
But at the same time, camps are
using technologies to their advantage:
live streaming events so parents back
home can watch, using digital
programs to teach Hebrew,
uploading photos to the
Internet and replacing scan-
ning with snail mail to
instantly send the chil-
dren’s letters to their
parents.
Camps are
evolving as they
try to figure out
how to toe the
line between
enhancing their pro-
grams with technology
while giving kids a rustic camp
experience, Resnick says.
“Policies we implement one summer
could be totally different from the next
because we are still trying to see what
works,” Resnick says. “If you would have
asked me three years ago if I’d ever let
staff use cell phones in camp, I’d say
absolutely not. But last year we started
telling staff to text as a way of commu-
nication in camp, and it’s actually really
efficient.”
As a way to appeal to campers seeking
a more digital camp experience, Ramah
in the Berkshires recently added digital
filmmaking to its
electives alongside
traditional camp
activities such as
arts and crafts,
cooking and nature
courses.
Jodi Fleisig of
Atlanta, whose two
sons attend Camp
Ramah Darom
in Clayton, Ga.,
says live stream-
ing of the camp’s
Havdalah service was a highlight
of her summer. Through its
Facebook page, Ramah Dorom
invited parents and alumni to
celebrate the end of Shabbat
virtually alongside campers sing-
ing by candlelight.
“Watching my son during
the live Havdalah service was
like watching him through a
peephole—giving him the
freedom and independence
I want him to have
while still getting
to see him look so
free, so happy and so engaged,”
says Fleisig, who hosted a viewing party
at her home for the service. “It’s amazing
to see your normally shy kids who don’t
sing, don’t dance, literally come alive at
camp.
“Technology can be a wonderful vehi-
cle to watch your kids grow, and to know
that they are getting out of the camp
experience what you were hoping they
would gain without interfering with their
independence.”
Ramah Darom is looking into other
programs to live stream this summer,
including the camp play.
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Februray 11, 2013 | Camp | Jewish News | 37
At Beber Camp, parents can connect
through an app created last summer by
staffer Brad Robison that gives parents
access to camp videos, social media, sched-
ules and activities. Beber also uses a web
management company, CampMinder, to
enable kids to write letters home that are
then digitally scanned and uploaded to a
portal parents access through the camp
website. A unique barcode on the back
of each letter ensures that it goes to the
right account.
Camp Osrui, a Reform camp in
Oconomowoc, Wis., where teaching
Hebrew is a top priority, began using
the language program Rosetta Stone last
summer. Campers responded so well to
the program, enjoying the activity as a
game while learning Hebrew at a swift
pace, that Osrui is expanding its media
center for this summer, according to camp
director Jerry Kaye.
Osrui also plans to incorporate a new
digital pen pal program in which campers
will Skype with Israeli children to practice
their Hebrew and make Israeli friends. The
camp’s website currently offers an exten-
sive digital gallery that uploads some 500
photos of campers each day.
Not all camp officials are fans of pro-
viding information to parents in real time,
however.
“The problem with incorporating all
this technology is that I think camp should
be teaching independence, how to get
along on your own, and parents will
hear half-stories often if they are con-
stantly being updated by a phone call
or a photo,” Morasha camp director Ira
Spodek says.
Like many summer camps, Morasha
still is trying to figure out the good
and the bad of technology. Spodek says
the camp’s rule banning Internet-enabled
gadgets is becoming increasingly harder
to enforce with technology advancing
and filtering down even to the youngest
campers. He notes that some campers
will show up with two cell phones: one
to forfeit to the office, the other to use
secretly throughout the summer to con-
tact parents.
Ultimately, says Alan Silverman, direc-
tor of Bnei Akiva’s Camp Moshava in
Ontario, Canada, summer camp is about
giving the kids an experience beyond the
ordinary.
“We don’t allow any sort of cell
phones or gadgets in our camp, and
it’s not because we’re against them,”
Silverman says. “The goal is to show them
how much camp has to offer, with all
the nature and sports, that it’s better for
them to leave the gadgets behind for the
summer.”
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Photo courtesy Simon Family JCC.
38 | Jewish News | Camp | February 11, 2013
Donors struggling to defray the rising costs of Jewish camp
by Gil Shefler
NEW YORK (JTA)—Spending the summer
at Jewish overnight camp once was a
spartan affair, often little more than a col-
lection of ramshackle buildings scattered in
the woods by a placid lake.
Those were the days.
“Today it’s all about the toys,” says
Rabbi Allan Smith, the former head of the
Reform movement’s camp network and a
46-year veteran of the summer camp busi-
ness. “You have a go-kart track, a climbing
wall, a swing, a Burma bridge.
“When I was a kid, 90 percent of the
camps were by a lake. Today if you don’t
have a pool you’re a loser. Kids don’t like
lakes, they’re dirty.”
Such amenities may make camps more
appealing, but they don’t come cheap.
Parents can expect to shell out
anywhere from $600 per week per child at
one of the less expensive nonprofit camps
to $2,000 per week at some of the pricier
options. For families already struggling to
cover the costs of Jewish education during
the school year, sending a child to camp
might be one expense too many.
In a bid to help defray the cost, the
Foundation for Jewish Camp has awarded
more than 43,000 grants to attend a non-
profit summer camp. The grants can be up
to $1,000 per family.
“We believe summers at Jewish camp
are an important component in one’s
Jewish identity,” says Jeremy Fingerman,
the foundation’s CEO. “Camp teaches a
joyful Judaism and becomes an important
building block for a Jewish future. We
believe families challenged economically
should not be penalized.”
The high tuition at Jewish camps,
which directors at the camps agree is
considerably costlier than at their Christian
counterparts, is cause for concern among
those who fear that a potent identity-
building opportunity is slipping away from
middle-income families.
For Debra Hollander of Shaker Heights,
Ohio, sending her children to Jewish camp
is a top priority, despite the costs.
“Our three kids go to secular education
schools, so for us Jewish camping became
even more important,” she says.
A 2011 study commissioned by the
Foundation for Jewish Camp lends cre-
dence to Hollander’s view of Jewish camps
as important shapers of Jewish identi-
ty. According to the study, Jewish camp
alumni are 30 percent more likely to donate
to a Jewish charity; 37 percent more likely
to light Sabbath candles; and 45 percent
more likely to attend synagogue.
“The analysis indicates that [camps]
bring, first of all, an increased inclination
to practice Jewish behaviors in their lives,
from Shabbat lighting candles to using
Jewish websites and to appreciate the
value of Jewish charity,” the study con-
cludes. “Secondly, they bring an inclination
to value and seek out the experience of
Jewish community, whether in the immedi-
ate sense of joining other Jews in prayer or
in the more abstract sense of identifying
with fellow Jews in Israel.”
The FJC, which has a mission to increase
the number of Jewish campers, is working
to identify ways for camps to reduce costs.
In recent years it has coordinated the sharing
of resources, encouraged the development
of alternative revenue sources and helped
camp directors improve their managerial
skills through a program the organization
likens to “an MBA in camping.”
One of the most important elements in
helping camps stay on stable footing, the
foundation believes, is boosting enrollment.
“Camps that are full are profitable and
reinvest back in scholarships,” Fingerman
says. “So there is a power in numbers, and
we’re working hard to get them full.”
Other organizations also have taken
steps to make camp more affordable,
particularly for less-affiliated families and
first-time campers who might be less sold
on the value of the camp experience. The
Avi Chai and Zell foundations jointly made
a $600,000 donation to Ramah to help the
Conservative movement’s camp network
attract first-timers.
“We’re calling it the Ramah Open
Door Program, where we’re opening up to
less Jewish-affiliated families,” says Rabbi
Mitchell Cohen, Ramah’s national director.
Paul Reichenbach, the director of camp
and Israel programs at the Union for Reform
Judaism, says a significant number of chil-
dren attending his movement’s summer
programs also receive scholarships.
While camp directors agree that the
costs of Jewish overnight camps are
high, they offer varying explanations as
to the reasons. Some say it’s the relative
abundance of staff—a ratio of one super-
visor for every two campers, according
to Cohen. Others point to the salaries of
directors, which average about $125,000
per year at nonprofit camps, according to
public tax filings. Directors at Jewish for-
profits can make even more.
Perhaps the biggest factor driving costs,
however, is the Jewish community’s relative
affluence and the resulting expectations.
“What [Jewish camps] provide may be
higher with regard to facility, to program
options, with regard to staff structure,”
Reichenbach says. “And we are dealing
with a community that has a certain expec-
tation for quality.”
Despite a growing recognition of the
importance of making tuition affordable,
Reichenbach predicted costs would con-
tinue to appreciate at a rate of two percent
to five percent each year.
“We live in the real world,” he says.
“Our practices have reflected the rise in the
cost-of-living index, the cost of energy, of
food, of transportation. We are doing the
best we can to stay even.”ADVERTISEMENT: Visit OneHappyCamper.
org to find a Jewish camp and see if your child qualifies for a $1,000 grant.
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Older girls and boys programs available.
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Februray 11, 2013 | Camp | Jewish News | 39
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Mini Golf
MusicNature
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Registration starting in early March. For more information visit CampJCC.org or call 757-321-2338
Simon Says: Come Have Fun!
40 | Jewish News | Camp | February 11, 2013
JUMP INto your best summer ever!
301.468.2267
12750 Buchanan Trail East,Waynesboro, PA 17268
[email protected] capitalcamps.org
Each summer, we provide our campers an enriching Jewish
camp experience, full of fun, new skills and new friends, all in a safe, nurturing environment.
We invite you to join our Capital Camps family as we
celebrate 25 amazing summers!