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The Big Vacation

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DIANE SCHAEFER STAFF WRITER

ing with a sack containing a
sun hat, bottle and diaper, and
came home with a picture con-
sisting of a few scribbles of
crayon, with his name in-
scribed.
The following year, Yehuda's
day camp, run by a local 11-
year-old under her mother's su-
pervision, included swimming
in the family wading pool and
baking challot on Fridays. The

camp, which ran for two
weeks and included optional
baby sitting after hours, was
heaven for working mothers
— and the counselor earned
enough money to visit her
grandmother in the United
States.
As children enter the school
system, the camps become
more sophisticated. When
Yehuda was 4 and the camp
was run by his school, he re-
turned home one day with an
"aquarium" he had made in a
soda bottle. Naturally, his and
100 other mothers were forced

to go out and buy proper fish
bowls and companions for the
single goldfish that came in the
"aquarium."
Keitanot usually last for two
to three weeks, often only until
1 p.m. Once camp is finished,
parents and children are on
their own. More sophisticated
and expensive, private camps
may have two sessions, the
second of which is in August.
Many of the youth
movements sponsor
overnight camp after
Tisha b'Av, for older chil-
dren. In an effort.to re-
cruit students, the
religious high schools and
educational yeshivot
sponsor 10-day, overnight
educational seminars for
6th- through 8th-graders.
From mid-August until
the start of the school
year in September, half of
Israel empties out. Sum-
mer camps are almost
non-existent, and many com-
panies actually close down,
forcing employees to take vaca-
tion.
For unlucky fathers and
mothers who must work dur-
ing the last weeks of summer
vacation, the solution is simple:
bring the children to work. It
isn't unusual to walk into a
store, or even a doctor's office,
toward the end of August and
see a group of children fidget-
ing behind the counter or in
the waiting room, counting the
hours until morn or dad take
them home. El

DIANE SCHAEFER is a freelance writer who lives in Jerusalem with her husband, Akiva, and their children, Yehuda and

Sara.

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6

J U L Y 1 9 9 7

F

or the parents of
school-aged children
in Israel, the advent
of July means sum-
mer vacation, in Hebrew as
chofesh hagado4 "the big_va-
cation." And along with The
Big Vacation comes the usual
question, "What do we do
with the children?"
The two-month vacation of-
ten translates into two months
of agony for working
parents, especially as the
decision of what to do
with younger children
may be influenced large-
ly by economic factors.
Immediately after va-
cation begins, a wealth
of keitanot, day camps,
is offered. These range
from organized activities
for young children, usu-
ally grades 1 to 6, spon-
sored by the local
community council,
community center or
school, to expensive private
camps, to neighborhood camps
(run by teens or even pre-teens
under the tutelage of their par-
ents) for young children of
varying ages. The lucky worker
in a large company, such as
Hadassah Hospital or Hebrew
University, also is able to place
his or her child in a summer
camp sponsored by the em-
ployer.
Yehuda attended his first day
camp, run by an assistant at
the local day-care center, just
before his second birthday. He
was bundled off in the morn-

ry.

15