Jewish troops embrace
values while having_
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Max Olender, 10, of West Bloomfield at Camp Munhake in Gregory, Mich.
.
KAREN SCHWARTZ
Special to the Jewish News
Gregory Mich.
onah Stiennon, 13, of West Bloomfield traded
in his usual Shabbat routine for a weekend of
camping with Boy Scout Troop 364. He
cooked his dinner in tinfoil over a campfire
and learned how to start a fire without matches — but
not until Shabbat was over.
Stiennon was one of 17 Boy Scouts and Webelos
Scouts (grades 4 and 5) who spent a winter weekend at
Boy Scout Camp Munhacke during the
new troop's first campout. Chartered by
the Adat Shalom Synagogue Men's Club
in November 2003, the troop follows the
Conservative synagogue's Shabbat obser-
vance.
An eruv (enclosure to ease Shabbat
restrictions) went up around the campsite
before Shabbat, with the boys stringing
wire along the tops of stakes pounded
into the ground. On Shabbat, they used phosphores-
cent light sticks instead of flashlights and went hiking
by starlight.
Of the 4 million boys nationwide in the Boy Scouts
of America, about 40,000 are Jewish and about one
quarter of those belong to the approximately 250 units
chartered by Jewish institutions.
Jewish Scouts participate in all the usual Scouting
activities, learning survival skills and taking part in
activities to earn merit badges. Troop members also
have the opportunity to work for religious awards, dis-
tributed by the Irving, Texas-based National Jewish
Committee on Scouting (NJCS), for various Jewish
j
munity service.
Lockshin, a Canton, Ohio, resident, has been a Scout
for 65 years. He said that 50 years ago, it was normal
for every Jewish youth to become part of a Scout troop,
most likely a Jewish one. Troops chartered to Jewish
organizations and Jewish communities were common,
and it was part of the way children of immigrants, like
Lockshin, could participate in American society.
But because troops often are organized geographical-
ly and the Jewish community is spread out, he said,
many boys today are just as likely to belong to a troop
chartered to a secular group, church or school.
Southfield resident Kevin Liss said he
liked that with Jewish Scouting, his son
Daniel, 9, could take full advantage of
the activity and really be part of the
group.
"If(the kids do Little League, if they do
soccer, it's been our experience that they
have to have a separate schedule," he
ofWest Bloo
Moshe Hatkia4
said. "If you join something where events
are on Saturday, you're always missing
something, so that's what's nice about doing a Jewish
Scouts of America, started in the 1920s, said Jerrold
event; that way they can participate fully."
Lockshin, past NJCS national chairperson. The parallel
He added that with Shabbat observance and kosher
religious path gives Scouts the chance to receive reli-
food built into the program, the boys don't have to feel
gious awards for learning about Judaism and wear the
'singled out.
emblems on their uniforms.
"The kids are put in a social situation where they're
There are four major age-appropriate awards: the
not the oddball out who has to have the kosher meat,"
Maccabee Award, for the youngest Cub Scouts; the
he said. "We knew they'd observe Shabbat and have
Aleph Award, for older Cubs and Webelos; the Ner
kosher food, so it all seems natural, everybody doing
Tamid, for the youngest Boy Scouts; and the Etz -
the same thing."
Chaim Award, for the oldest Boy Scouts. A troop
Stiennon, who slept in a tent Friday night despite the
award also can be earned for excellence in program-
snow during the Jan. 16-18 campout, said he remem-
ming. Scouts work toward the awards through research
bers his other Boy Scout troop, based out of Beth
and Jewish learning projects as well as through com-
accomplishments. The National Jewish Girl Scout
Committee, based in New York City, provides Jewish
programming for Jewish Girl Scouts nationwide.
"The Scout Law, which is the 12 points of being a
Scout, is very consistent with everything we're taught in
Torah — honesty, kindness, tzedakah [righteous acts],
tikkun olam [repair of the world] — it's all part of the
Scout program," said West Bloomfield's Allen Olender,
vice-chairman for national organizations for the NJCS.
Scouting in the United States started in 1910, and
the Jewish organization, one of the more than 50 reli-
gious organizations that are subcommittees of the Boy
"I wish it were every Shabbos, well every other
Shabbos, so then I wouldn't get tired of it
Because it's fun.' --
la
2/27
2004
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