World

Camp Goal

Tamarack
tries novel
approaches
to building
Jewish
identity.

-
Doug Chandler
Special to the Jewish News

ewish children from
Metro Detroit have
visited the Western Wall
during each of the past two sum-
mers, placing notes in the Kotel's
crevices that speak of their
hopes and dreams. They've also
held ceremonies at the Wall and
observed holidays there.
But they didn't have to travel to
Jerusalem to visit the Wall, says
Jonah Geller, executive direc-
tor of the Fresh Air Society and
Tamarack Camps, an agency
of the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit. In fact,
they had to go no further than
Tamarack's overnight camp in
Ortonville, where campers and
staff built a replica of the Kotel
two summers ago.
The replica "is still standing
at a crossroads of the camp" and
kids are expected to continue
placing notes in the structure
this summer, says Geller, call-
ing it one of the creative ways in
which his organization helps to
build Jewish identity.
The chance to share such sto-
ries — and to hear from others
about the best practices in their
field — is partly what led Geller
and Tamarack's president, Brian
Kepes, to a two-day conference
in New Jersey earlier this month.
The two men led a contingent of

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20 April 6 = 2006

staff members and lay leaders
to the event — North America's
first assembly for camping pro-
fessionals from across the Jewish
spectrum.
One direct benefit is the camp's
newfound association with the
Harold Grinspoon Foundation,
an organization based in western
Massachusetts that works with
more than two dozen nonprofit
Jewish camps to help them grow,
Kepes suggested. He and Geller
met during the conference with
Grinspoon, the organization's
founder, and with a foundation
staff member to explore working
together in the years ahead.
Ideas and contacts from the
event should also help the board
as it develops a new strategic
plan to replace the agency's cur-
rent one, which is now about
five years old, Kepes said. "We've
gone through some transition
in the past few years, and the
leadership is eager to give some
near- and long-term direction
to the camp." That new direction
would strengthen and formalize
changes that have already taken
place, including a greater Jewish
orientation in the camp's pro-
gramming.
Like others at the conference,
Geller and Kepes were drawn
because they'd like to place sup-
port for Jewish camping at the
top of the communal agenda. As
they see it, attending a Jewish
camp — once regarded as nice
and certainly positive but defi-
nitely not crucial -- is vital to
Jewish continuity.
"For many of our kids, coming
to a Jewish camp may be the only
thing Jewish they do all year:'
says Geller. And in many cases;
he added, those children bring
what they learned' at Tamarack
home with them, teaching their
parents.
Tamarack Camps is the only
nonprofit Jewish overnight camp
in Michigan. About 1,200 chil-
dren attend the camp each year,
the vast majority of them from

the Detroit area.
One of the beauties of camping
is that the children themselves,
brought together for a concen-
trated period of time, often make
close friends and regard the
experience as fun, say organiz-
ers of this month's conference.
In such an atmosphere there's
a lot the campers can learn and
absorb.
"We don't force our children to
do anything:' Geller says of the

Bloomfield, says she and fellow
board members "want to ensure
that every child who wants to
attend can attend."
The agency has distributed
$750,000 in camping scholar-
ships each year to about a third
of its campers, Geller says, a
number that has grown during
the past five years in the face of
a deteriorating economy and the
rising cost of Jewish living.
Last year, the camp raised

Tamarack campers slip notes into a replica of the Western Wall.

way Tamarack works. "We try to
expose them to things Jewish in a
way that's fun, exciting and cool."
The campers celebrate
Shabbat, for instance, with
songs, services and a traditional
Friday dinner, Geller says. They
also take pat in special activi-
ties, such as building the camp's
"Western Wall" and stitching
together "a humongous tallis"
used to teach the children about
having an aliyah during a Torah
reading.
To offer such experiences to
as many children as possible,
fund-raising has become an
increasingly important part of
Tamarack's activities, says Shelley
Hutton, a vice president of the
agency. Hutton, a resident of West

$100,000 in private donations
— on top of the Federation's
$560,000 allocation — through
a new campaign, "Send a Kid
to Tamarack Camp," earmarked
specifically for scholarships.
Hutton, who met her future
husband while attending a
Jewish camp, says that even in
her own Jewishly committed
household, her four children have
gained a great deal from attend-
ing Tamarack. The children,
ranging in age from 15 to 23,
have each met Israeli children
at Tamarack, building a connec-
tion to Israel that might not have
existed otherwise. ❑

New Camp Initiative

New York/JTA -- The
Foundation for Jewish Camping
convened its National Leaders
Assembly in New Jersey to bring
together leaders of camps from
across the Jewish spectrum for
the first time. They included
camps run by the religious move-
ments and JCCs to Zionist move-
ment and unaffiliated camps.
Participants heard from
funders and from experts who
addressed best practices. By
bringing together leaders of
diverse camps, organizers were
hoping to spur the launch of a
unified Jewish camping move-
ment that will work toward what
individual camps can't achieve
on their own.
"It is extraordinarily important
to create and support a national
movement for Jewish camping:'
said Elisa Spungen Bildner, co-
chair of the foundation's board
along with her husband, Rob
Bildner. "Unless it becomes part
of the national agenda, we will
not succeed in our goal of better-
ing Jewish camping."
The foundation announced
that it was launching the
Executive Leadership Initiative to
offer experienced camp profes-
sionals business, management
and leadership skills.
-
"We have to be able to really
invest in our people, to open
their eyes to the wider market-
place," said Jerry Silverman, the
foundation's executive director.
This "has.never been the culture
in Jewish camping."
In addition, Silverman said,
the movement must boost its
advocacy capabilities, including
research, marketing and public
relations; increase its capacity,
both by upping the number of
available beds and creating new
camps in underserved areas; and
working toward excellence by
seeking out money for innovative
programming.
All of this, foundation leaders
say, will cost in the vicinity of
$500 million. Raising that money
will mean convincing philanthro-
pists that camping is an essential
component for building Jewish
identity and ensuring Jewish
continuity

❑

